


Bonds Across Time

by driftingstar



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bonds Beyond Time, Canon Compliant, Fantasy, M/M, Starshipping, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2017-12-20 18:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driftingstar/pseuds/driftingstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paradox’s grand experiment was not without consequences.  (Alternatively: Yusei and Judai’s misadventures on a time traveling motorcycle.)  Pre-slash. Slowly progressing Starshipping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Time of the Pharaohs

Something was wrong.  The Crimson Dragon roared in fury as they barrelled through the void, struggling against an unseen force.  The red fire blazed hotter around them as the manifestation of the dragon star tried to propel them onwards, stretching the fabric of time and space to its limits.  Clinging to the surface of the D-Wheel by the force of will alone, Yusei and Judai braved the chaotic maelstrom, relying only on the god’s rapidly depleting aura to shield them as metaphysical winds tore at them from all sides.

 

The force eventually proved to be too much.  From here on, the details became fuzzy.  The duellists would later recall slamming into a barrier of searing light and watching in horror as the Crimson Dragon dissolved into shining ribbons as they fell, screaming into white nothingness. 

 

* * *

 

Judai groaned as he slowly came back to life, shivering.  His body ached like it had gone sightseeing in a blender while he had been unconscious.   

 

 _Yubel?_    _What’s going on?_

 

…

 

_… Yubel?_

 

_Yubel!_

 

Frantically, he reached out for the other half of his soul and was relieved when he sensed her steadying presence sleeping in the back of his mind. 

 

_That’s right.  Yubel must still be tired from protecting me. Wait…!_

 

His eyes snapped open as he shot up, only to double over as his muscles screamed in protest. Something that had been draped across his chest slid into his lap with a soft thump.  He stared at it blankly for a moment, fingering the rough material.  It was dark blue with orange accents and smelled faintly of motor oil. 

 

Something bright had been flickering at the edge of his vision.  He followed it and saw a dark haired boy in a sleeveless black shirt half-facing away from him and stoking a fire.  Beside him, looking rather battered was a motorcycle which was only half-assembled, several pieces scattered around.  An open toolkit had been carefully laid next to it.  

 

“Yusei…” he croaked past the dryness in his throat.

 

“Judai-san!”  Finally realizing that he had finally awakened, Yusei immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed over, helping him sit up fully.  Without prompting, he handed him a thermos which he took without hesitation.  The water was lukewarm and slightly sandy but he gulped it down greedily.  After finishing half of it, he turned to regard his new companion more closely. 

 

Yusei was staring at him with undisguised relief, the tense lines in his shoulders relaxing.  He also looked like he hadn’t slept in days.  Dark circles lined his blue eyes, giving them a slightly hollow look.  He was covered in dust and looked as if he had half a sandbox dumped over his head. Noting the grittiness in his own mouth, Judai realized that he probably didn’t look much better himself.

 

Judai favoured the other duelist with a shaky but sincere smile.  “Sorry for making you look after me,” he said sheepishly.  He picked the crumpled jacket off of his lap and handed it back.  “Was I out long?” 

 

After ascertaining that brown-haired boy wasn’t about to collapse again, Yusei draped his jacket back over his shoulders, unable to hold back a slight shiver.  He averted his eyes.  “You were asleep for two days.”

 

“Two days?!” Judai exclaimed, suddenly much more awake.  Yusei’s ragged appearance made a lot more sense. “Oh crap, now I’m really sorry!  No wonder you look so beat up,” he said before realizing that it came out somewhat tactless. 

 

If he took any offence at all, he didn’t show it.  “It’s fine.  I’m just glad you’re awake.” 

 

He cast his gaze around to examine their surroundings.  Yusei had tucked them behind a tall jagged rock formation which made an admirable attempt at blocking out the wind.  Beyond the wall of rocks, Judai could see nothing be long stretches of sand which was sparsely decorated with thin, thorny plants. 

 

“By the way, where are we?”

 

“I sent out a distress signal through my D-Wheel, but my communications aren’t getting through.  In the best case, it might be because this area doesn’t have any reception.”  Despite the hopeful words, Yusei’s pessimistic expression revealed that he personally did not take any stock in this theory. 

 

“And in the worst case?” asked Judai.

 

“We were borrowing the power of the Crimson Dragon to go back to your time.  But something interfered and the Crimson Dragon drained its energies to shield us.  There’s no telling where… or  _when_  we ended up.”

 

Judai hummed thoughtfully for a moment, staring up at the sky.  He brightened up.  “It might not be as bad as you think,” he said, clapping a friendly hand on the other boy’s shoulder.  “On the bright side, I’m pretty sure we’re still on Earth.”

 

“How can you tell?” asked Yusei.

 

Judai chuckled and pointed directly upwards.  The black-haired duelist followed the path traced by his finger.

 

“The stars?”

 

“Yup!” Judai grinned, triumphantly popping the ‘p’.  “I recognize the constellations. Not enough to tell you where we are, exactly, though.”

 

“That’s impressive,” said Yusei almost wistfully.  “You can’t see stars from Neo Domino City because of the light pollution.  Not from Satellite either.”

 

“Is that where you’re from, Yusei?” Judai asked, sitting with his elbows propped up by his knees. “I’ve been meaning to ask: what’s the future like?”

 

Yusei hesitated.  “That’s not really something I can describe in a few words.  My life in the future… it isn’t perfect… or even pleasant sometimes.  But I always had friends I could rely on.”

 

Sensing the other boy’s reluctance, Judai hurriedly backtracked.  “Ah!  It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it.  I probably shouldn’t be spoiling myself anyway,” he said with a cheerful wink.  “I believe that the future is what we make ourselves by living to the fullest in the present!  Or something like that.  Man, I guess that must be pretty weird for you, since my future is technically your past.”

 

Yusei gifted him with a rare smile.  “If it helps, I believe that too, Judai-san.”

 

“So! What’s the plan?” Judai asked, slightly rocking in enthusiasm, not seeming at all put off by being potentially stranded in the middle of an unknown desert with dwindling food and water supplies.

 

Yusei pushed back his sleeve and stared at the faded mark on his forearm in resignation.  “The Crimson Dragon used up a colossal amount of energy to take us to the past to fight Paradox.  I’m sorry.  It looks like it may take a while before we can get back to your time.”

 

“Don’t be worry about it, Yusei.  Of course, I’d like to get back as soon as possible and make sure that Johan and the others are OK.  But with the Crimson Dragon, it’ll be like we have a TARDIS!”

 

“A… Tardis?”

 

“It’s a kind of a small big blue boxy time machine spaceship thing and… uh, never mind.  In any case, I’m sure we could even get back five minutes  _before_  we left!”

 

Yusei nodded slowly, despite not understanding a single word, mentally cataloguing it as another piece of history that had been lost during the Zero Reverse disaster.  “Thank you for your understanding.  For now, I believe we should start with find a water source.  Our provisions will likely last us only a few days.  We can figure out where we are afterwards.” 

 

“Good idea.  Maybe it’ll lead us to civilization too.  If we’re lucky, we’ve only just been knocked a few countries over from Duel Academia.”

 

Now that Judai was awake and no longer in danger of falling into a coma, the two finally took stock of their inventory.  Yusei had a small emergency travel kit stashed away in his D-Wheel from his trip to Crash Town.  It was thanks to it that he was able to keep them hydrated during the last two days.  He had been ill prepared for his sudden trip through time.  Judai on the other hand had packed for a long trip, although he hadn’t expected his journey to take him so far from society or for him to pick up an extra travelling buddy.  His rugsack contained a couple changes of clothes, dry rations, and two litres of water.  It also contained a pudgy orange cat which meowed disdainfully at the Slifer duelist as it was emptied from the bag.  It stalked over by the fire and curled up, intent on returning to its nap.

 

The two duellists decided to travel at night to avoid suffocating in the desert heat, once Yusei completed his D-Wheel’s repairs.  The motorcycle had been badly damaged upon their arrival which the Satellite duelist had forgone sleep to work on.  Although their water was running out, Judai insisted on remaining at their shelter for an extra day, fearing the bags under the older (?) boy’s eyes.  Ignoring his protests, Judai forcibly tucked him in a spare blanket and set him up by the fire next to the dozing cat, ordering him in no uncertain terms to sleep.

 

Eventually exhaustion won out and Yusei drifted off.  Judai watched his taut features and noted that they remained tense even in sleep.  He laughed quietly so not to wake him, thinking to himself that this boy from the future had to be the most serious person he knew, even more so than Kaiser or Misawa. 

 

 _Yubel?_ He tried calling again.  To his delight, this time he could feel her stirring in the back of his mind.

 

 _Judai_ … His duel spirit partner greeted, drowsy but warm.   _You’re safe_.

 

“Thanks to you, Yubel.  And to Yusei too.”  Judai turned serious.  “What happened? Yusei said something interfered with the Crimson Dragon.  Could that be why the two of us were drained so much?”

 

 _Judai, I’m sorry.  There’s something out there, weakening my powers even now.  I’m afraid I will need time to recover. Take care of yourself until then…_ Yubel’s voice became more distant until it faded away entirely.

 

Judai sat back against the rock and gazed up at the sky, feeling rather overwhelmed.  He had thought that after his misadventures in the Dimension World, he would never be surprised again.  And here he was, out of time, next to a man who would not be born for years.

 

“Good night, Yubel, Yusei,” he said, before closing his eyes to join them in slumber.

 

**…………**

 

 

Yusei stood alone in a brightly lit hallway whose empty corridors seemed to stretch on forever.  He cast his gaze around, trying to make out his surroundings but the details faded into the light.  He stumbled as a man suddenly brushed past him, knocking him aside.  Startled, Yusei spun around, only glimpsing a flash of familiar dark spikes of hair, fanning out from over the wide collar of a long white coat. 

 

 _Father_?  Yusei tried to call out to the slowly retreating figure, but the words remained trapped in this throat.  He started after him. Without realizing it, Yusei had broken into a run but despite the figure’s slow, purposeful walk, he was only getting further and further away until he disappeared entirely.  

 

_Father, wait!_

 

The scene abruptly changed around him.  Now, he was high above the shining lights of a vast metropolis.  Then came an ominous rumble and with sudden clarity, Yusei knew where he was.

 

He screamed in horror and denial as the column of spiralling energy tore through the heavens, ripping apart the sky and stars. Below, men and women screamed as its poisonous light stripped flesh and life from bone.

 

In the center of it all was the dark haired man, laughing with his arms spread wide.

 

**…………**

 

Yusei plunged into icy wakefulness, gasping for air.  Forcing down the last the fragments of his nightmare, he sat up with a sigh and rested his forehead against his palms.  His return to reality was accompanied by a sharp pain in his temples, which he attempted to massage away without success.  Judging by the path traced by the pale moon, Yusei had scarcely slept more than a couple of hours.  Several feet away, on the other side of the slowly dying embers, the Judai slumbered on, one arm draped over their feline companion.  Just beyond the alcove they were nestled in, the desert winds continued to rage.

 

He stood, automatically heading towards his D-Wheel and reached for his tools. Going through the familiar motions successfully calmed him.  He had been having nightmares featuring Zero Reverse with increasing frequency ever since his duel with Rudger and his subsequent plunge into Old Momentum.  They had briefly abated after defeating the Dark Signers, but resurfaced with a vengeance upon encountering Ghost.  

 

The past forty-eight hours had been trying, to say the least.  Groggy and disoriented, he had woken up to the unpleasant sensation of being slowly baked alive beneath a thick layer of hot sand.  After digging himself out and pawing at the surrounding mounds, he discovered his impromptu time-traveling companion in a similar state.  He had made several unsuccessful and increasingly anxious attempts to rouse the other boy.  In the end, he had been forced to hoist his unresponsive body over his broken motorcycle and painstakingly wheel them to safety.

 

Just three days ago, before Paradox and ruined futures, he had been surrounded with his team and his greatest worries had been winning the WRGP and coming up with a way to counter the synchro-killers.  Yusei turned to face the stars but his blue eyes were unfocused, gazing at something beyond them, his insides clenching with an unfamiliar feeling of homesickness. 

 

It was fortunate that he did.  Had he not looked up at that precise moment, he would have been too slow to react, diving to the side just in time to avoid being torn in half by vicious, bird-faced monster.  Had he never met Izayoi Aki and never knew of the fearful power to materialize duel spirits, Yusei would have frozen to the spot, realizing too late that what had dived at him was not solid vision.  The bedrock beneath his feet had been shredded like styrofoam.

 

The horned creature screeched in fury when its prey evaded its grasp.  With an agitated flap of its massive wings, it barrelled into the sky for extra momentum and doubled back, readying wickedly sharp talons. 

 

“Yusei, duck!” 

 

Without a second thought, Yusei hit the ground just as a blast of electricity shot over him, catching the monster midflight. The feathered body convulsed and fell backwards, momentarily stunned.  Yusei chanced a glimpse over his shoulder and saw Judai with his duel disk out, his eyes glowing amber.  Hovering above him was a golden armoured hero, preparing another crackling attack.  

 

The monster recovered midflight, shaking off the remainder of the static.  With another unpleasant screech, it bore down upon them once again.  The elemental hero leapt forward to intercept it, balling up his fists to knock aside the monster’s talons.  They were evenly matched. 

 

That is, until the winged beast miscalculated and the hero ducked swipe which then left the creature wide open.  Sparkman roared in triumph and aimed a sparkling fist at the overgrown fowl’s unprotected flank but faltered without warning.  Yusei watched with trepidation as the hero’s image flickered once, and twice, before shattering into small fragments of light.  At the same time, he heard a thud and turned just in time to see Judai’s legs give out as he slumped to the ground, ashen. 

 

“Judai-san!” he exclaimed.  He ran to him, noting the brown-haired duellist’s pallor and the faint tremor in his hands even as he stubbornly reached for another card. 

 

“Hah… hah… Sorry, Yusei… I think… I’m a bit more tired than I thought,” Judai apologized between gasps, clutching at one of Yusei’s shoulders to steady himself. 

 

The bird-faced creature shrieked triumphantly and unfurled its massive wings, and _flapped_ , releasing a storm of feathered knives.  Heedless of his companion’s horrified protest, Yusei immediately positioned himself in front of the projectiles, shielding the Slifer duelist using own his body.  Just as the arrows were about to hit, Yusei felt a sharp pain in his right arm as his Signer mark lit up in a dull glow and a faint red barrier encased them, causing the feathers to deflect off harmlessly.

 

Attack foiled, the creature shrieked in outrage, flying into a frenzy.  It dived at them, ramming at the barrier repeatedly, clawing and drilling at it again, and again.  Yusei cried out, flinching at each barrage as his mark pulsed in agony.  Judai yelled at him to hold on while desperately trying to draw enough strength to summon again. Hairline fractures appeared at each point of impact until the shield could take no more and finally fell to pieces around them.

 

Judai and Yusei knelt on the ground, practically collapsed against the other, utterly spent and sapped of energy as the creature readied a final charge. 

 

They were interrupted by slow, mocking clapping.  The monster froze; its razor like claws had stopped an inch from Yusei’s glaring eyes.  A man stepped into view.  He was tall, bronze-skinned, and muscular, wearing little save for a loose, open robe and what looked like a linen skirt wrapped around his waist.  His hair was dark and long and fell in tangled braids down his back.   The creature bowed its cruel-beaked head and swiftly retreated to hover over his broad shoulders.  Its master’s face split into a wide, white-toothed smile.

 

 “Oh, well done!  That was truly a splendid effort,” he applauded them, absolutely delighted.  “Most unlucky travellers would have had their guts decorating the sand within the first five seconds.”

 

Yusei cursed inwardly.  The smoke from the fire must have drawn the bandits’ attention.  The men had waited for them to fall asleep before attacking, allowing their approach to be masked under the cover of the night.  He had chosen their location on the basis that it kept out the sun and provided a reasonable barrier against the wind. What he hadn’t accounted for were human predators.

 

“Why are you attacking us?” Yusei demanded, struggling to his feet, careful to keep the slightly smaller boy shielded.  He needed to buy time.  At the moment, the recovering Judai was their best chance.

 

The man shrugged elaborately.  “Why not?  Judging from your coloring and attire, you two are obviously foreigners, and foreigners generally have gold.  Besides,” he leered, “how could I resist after seeing your cute, sleeping faces?  We just couldn’t help ourselves.”  At his words, they were joined by roughly twenty men brandishing clubs and spears ominously, all similarly attired and sporting identical grins. 

 

Judai spoke up suddenly, narrowing his eyes.  “You’re not a duelist.  How are you controlling that monster?”

 

The man tsk’d, waving a finger in his direction.  “Don’t act like you’re surprised.  Didn’t you just summon your own pathetic little _Ka_?”

 

 _Ka_?  The word echoed strangely through Judai’s head, filtering through memories of napping on long white tables and the repetitive droning of a loud, nasal voice.  Where had he heard that term before?  He eyed the men critically, taking in their thick gold bands and noticed that the braided man’s circlet had been inscribed with a familiar eye.

 

“Judai-san…” Yusei warned in a low voice, having followed a similar line of thought to its unpleasant conclusion. 

 

“Yeah,” Judai replied.  “I know.”

 

They stood there, back to back, surrounded by heavily armed bandits, exhausted, and more than three thousand years out of time.


	2. The Village of Thieves

In the end, they hadn’t been able to put up much of a fight.

The bandits converged upon them, brandishing staves and maces. Having exhausted their powers, Judai and Yusei had no choice but to resort to outright brawling. But with the current odds of the two of them against twenty something bandits, they knew they were only delaying away the inevitable.

Yusei fought viciously with elbows and knees, targeting unprotected organs and joints. He managed to take out several men this way; diving down to avoid an overhead swing and lashing out with a booted foot at his assailant’s kneecaps. The brigand dropped like a stone but another soon took his place. Yusei was a decent scrapper, but he was no Jack Atlas. His slighter build also worked against him and he was tiring quickly.

Rarely having to resort to physical violence before, Judai was at a disadvantage. He dodged and weaved through the crowd of attackers the best he could, relying on his agility. However, coupled with his relative inexperience and the fact he had only effectively woken from a two-day coma, it wasn’t long before he had the wind knocked out of him by a blow to his back.

Yusei’s lapse in concentration upon hearing Judai’s pained cry cost him and he was clubbed in the side, sending him sprawling to the ground. As the two duellists were dragged to kneel next to each other, they noted with grim satisfaction that the bandits did not walk away unscathed either, and that several of them sported split lips and oddly angled limbs.

Judai let out a low whistle as he surveyed the damage, heedless of his captor’s tightening grip on his arms. “Nice kick,” he complimented. “Where did you pick up moves like that?”

“I…” Yusei cast about for the right words, “…grew up in a rough neighbourhood.”

A warning growl from one of the henchmen followed by a pointed gesture with his cudgel discouraged further conversation. Judai and Yusei then had their wrists bound tightly in front of them with thick hemp rope with a length connecting their wrists together, limiting their mobility and forcing them to awkwardly walk out of the alcove and towards where the rest of the bandit’s crew was waiting. The other end of the leash was clenched in the hands of a smirking, rat-faced bandit who was about the size of a small bear. The heavy-set man gave the rope a malicious tug, causing them stumble into each other.

Meanwhile, the rest of the bandits carelessly rifled through their bags, emptying them on the ground, grumbling in disappointment when they didn’t find anything more valuable than several canisters of water and a box of strange metal bits. Upon discovering the D-Wheel, however, the bandits exclaimed over it, having never seen anything akin to the sleek machine. Their leader casually oversaw them, watching with an assessing gray gaze and noting with satisfaction Yusei’s growing fury at having his possessions pawed at and manhandled.

“We’ll take the metal thing too,” he said, gesturing for them to hitch it up to one of the awaiting horses. “Could be useful for scrap.”

The boys could only helplessly watch as the bandits crammed the rest of their meagre belongings into thick burlap sacks, wincing when one of them gave Judai’s laptop an unimpressed once-over before tossing it into the sand. Judai began to fret; Pharaoh had disappeared sometime during the chaos, and he really rather hoped that he would have the sense to somehow follow them. Judai didn’t fancy losing him and eventually having to hunt down the feline carrying Daitokuji-sensei’s soul in the middle of an ancient desert. He figured that, in this particular timeline, running around calling for ‘Pharaoh’ would more than likely get him arrested.

Once the bandits had secured their loot, the one who appeared to be the boss of the operation sauntered over to examine their most interesting find of the night.

“How curious,” he said, flicking his long braids off his shoulder, “for you to have wandered so far out in the desert with such inadequate supplies.”

Had Judai been his sixteen year old self, he would have likely been tempted to challenge the bandits head on without a thought to the consequences and subsequently endangering them both. But if he had learned anything during his adventures, it would be patience. He could feel his powers resting dormant beneath his skin, just out of reach. He signalled the Yusei with a faint tug of their bound hands and shared a furtive glance. Yusei noticed that Judai’s brown eyes had slowly begun to sporadically flicker with gold and gave the other boy a barely perceptible nod.

Yusei took a step forward, drawing the group’s attention to himself. “What do you plan on doing with us?” he demanded.

The leader crossed his arms over his broad chest and raised an eyebrow. His strong jaw and sharp eyes could have been considered attractive if not for the coldness in his features and the mocking uplift of his lips. “What makes you think I want anything from you?” he asked, insincerely. “And really, don’t you have anything more original to say? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve already been asked that question this week.”

Yusei intensified his glare, drilling holes into his antagonist’s countenance. “If you don’t want anything, then let us go.”

The bandit looked away, put out. “Hmph, you’re no fun at all.” He turned and headed back towards his horse, waving negligently. “Pack them up, boys.”

The man holding their leash yanked at them roughly, grinning down at them from a mouth of broken teeth. “You heard the boss man. Hope you boys can keep up. You’ll be fetching us a pretty price, whe’er we bring you to them in one piece or not!” Before the duellists could brace themselves, he snapped at his reigns and the horse set off, forcing them into a run, or risk being dragged through the rocks.

Hours later, as the first fingers of dawn crept over the horizon, faint outlines became visible in the distance, standing out like a dark blotch against the sand. As they drew closer, they realized it was a sizable village, protected by high stone walls.

As the party approached, a horn blew, followed by an excited clamour as the thick metal gate slowly open by efforts of six strongmen. After passing through, one by one, the bandits dismounted and were boisterously greeted by a throng of men and women.

Judai and Yusei were led away from the welcoming committee, bypassing what appeared to be the village square down an ill-travelled road. Eventually, they were taken to an underground chamber and were unceremoniously shoved into a barred cell where the two duellists collapsed, panting harshly, having been made to cover most of the distance on foot. More than once during the long journey, they had cast almost longing glances toward the back of the procession where Yusei’s D-Wheel was being towed along.

As they caught their breath, three burly men entered the cell. Two held them down while the third cut away their bindings as they were repositioned until they sat facing away from each other. Their arms were then shackled together behind their backs, leaving them in the darkness and the men left them alone. Feeling the other’s shoulder blades tense up against his own, Judai gave Yusei a calming nudge and felt the other boy gradually relax.

“You OK, Yusei?” he asked, his voice echoing strangely in the confined space.

“I’ve had worse,” Yusei admitted, surreptitiously fiddling with the bonds.

“Same here, actually.” It said a lot for their experiences that the words came out as casual fact. He exhaled loudly and arched backwards in an attempt to stretch out the kinks in his spine and his head ended up clunking companionably against Yusei’s shoulder. “Ah, what a mess,” he lamented, “Next time, I get to pick where we go on vacation, okay?”

“I was hoping there isn’t going to be a next time,” Yusei replied, somewhat wryly. “I feel like I’ve had enough excitement lately.”

“Aw, hey, it’s not all bad,” Judai teased. “I mean, sure being attacked by ancient Egyptian thugs and deadly duel spirits isn’t most people’s idea of fun. But at least you’ve got me, right?”

That drew a light chuckle from the more serious duelist, to Yusei’s own chagrin.

“Ah!” Judai exclaimed triumphantly. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh. It suits you!”

“You have a gift for putting things into perspective.” Yusei felt a smile linger at his lips in spite of himself.

“Nah, you’re just too serious, Yusei,” Judai countered cheerily. “Even with Yugi back in his own time, between the two of us and Yubel when she wakes up, we’re more than a match for these guys!”

Yusei shook his head in amazement and slowly closed his eyes, finally feeling himself relax for the first time in days. “I’m glad to have met you, Judai.”  
  
“I hope you won’t have to change your mind about that,” Judai said, “since you might have to put up with me for a while.”

The trap door suddenly creaked open and one of the men returned, bearing a torch and a skin of water, cutting their conversation short. After stowing away the torch it its holder, he regarded their slumped forms with poorly concealed pity and raised the skin, first to Yusei’s lips, tilting it back to allow the cool liquid to spill into his parched throat.

When it was Judai’s turn, he deliberately widened his eyes until they watered and made himself look miserable, which wasn’t difficult, given the tortured state of his limbs. He gave him his best sad kitten impression (shamelessly stolen from Pharaoh). Paired with his dishevelled fluffy brown hair, Judai knew he looked years younger, a fact that he proceeded to exploit ruthlessly.

The man averted his eyes and withdrew the skin, shifting his weight. He, like the boss bandit, was tall and well-built and sported a shaved head with a set of markings running down the edge of his tanned face.

“Look,” he murmured in low, guarded tones, “I feel sorry for you, but I can’t do you any favours. I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

“Why did you bring us here?” Judai asked in a small voice.

“We’re not good guys. This is what we do.” He sighed, scratching at his scalp. “Usually we go for fat merchants or nobles stupid enough to take this route. Not starving kids. We get a much better haul, for one thing. It’s just bad luck that you met us. What did you kids think would happen, playing around in the middle of a warzone?”

“A warzone?” echoed Yusei. “This place is at war?”

“Seriously? What rock did you crawl out from? We’ve been fighting off the invading armies for years, and losing too!”

“We…” Yusei cast about for an excuse, but studying the history of ancient Egypt never really made it to the top of his list of priorities.

Judai chimed in. “We’re from the south.”

“Southerners? Huh,” the man leaned back and snorted disparagingly. “No wonder you don’t know anything. Savages, the lot of them.”

“Yup, that’s us,” Judai replied vaguely, rearranging his features into a slightly more vacuous expression.

The man shook his head in disbelief. “Huh. Well, that won’t matter anyhow. You kids will probably be stuck right in the middle if it anyway.”

“What do you mean?” asked Yusei warily.

“Recently, some people have been asking about and rounding up people with strong heka and they’ve been dishing out some nice dough for it. My guess is they’re looking for magicians for the war effort, or at least for more cannon fodder to throw at the enemies.”

Yusei and Judai both bristled at the casual mention of slavery but forced it down. They were, after all, in another time and there wasn’t much they could do to change it. For now, they needed the information.

“I see you’ve been making friends, Kasiya.” A sharp voice suddenly cut into the conversation unexpectedly and the three males started and turned to the entrance. Standing over them with his arms crossed over his chest was the boss of the bandits. Kasiya flushed and ducked his head like a chastised child.

“Sorry, boss,” he mumbled, dusting his tunic off as he got to his feet.

The boss waved away the apologies. “No worries. Go help the others unload. I’m just going to chat with our young friends here for a bit.” The bald man bowed hurriedly and exited, closing the hatch with a sharp clink.

The braided man reclined leisurely against a raised metal platform, unperturbed at the brown-crusted shackles dangling from its sides, expression made indecipherable from the flickering shadows cast by the flames.

“So,” he began conversationally. “Where are you kids really from?”

“We told you,” Judai began but was cut off.

“Now, now. You’re going to have to try harder than that.” He leaned in, this time with an undercurrent of menace. “I’m afraid I’ve gotten quite interested in you two.”

“Too bad we can’t say the same,” Yusei retorted. “Get to the point.”

The man let out a long-suffering sigh, raking a hand through his dreads. “Oh very well. As you’ve heard from my loose-lipped minion, recently I’ve been turning quite a profit from pawning off a few heka users. Just a couple weaklings here and there, not anyone people would miss.”

If the two weren’t furious before, they certainly were now.

“We’re not your playthings!” Yusei growled, straining against his cuffs. “You can’t just buy and sell human lives like objects!”

“You’ll find that I can. But besides that, let’s talk about you two. Judging by that little fight you put up earlier, you use your heka a bit too well not to have been trained. Most people don’t even know about the existence of their Ka, let alone manifest one and try to fight off my Birdface,” he paused, “emphasis on try. Nice try though. Too bad you’re still too weak, running out of Ba after just one summon.”

Judai made an indignant noise, but kept quiet, not wanted to give away the game. Instead, the two boys glared at him sullenly, waiting for him to stop rambling.

“Where are you going with this?” asked Yusei. With their arms behind him and out of the man’s line of sight, he deftly reached into the sleeve of his jacket, feeling around. He was rewarded when something long and thin dropped into his hand. When Judai felt it pressed against his palm, he deliberately angled his body towards the bandit, more effectively hiding his partner’s movements.

“I was just thinking about how my reputation would suffer if I turned up with defective merchandise.” He pushed off the platform, stretching languidly as he walked towards them. Behind him, a shadow materialized at the edge of his shoulder, talons gleaming. A wicked grin broke across his face.

“Which is exactly why I’ll be taking you boys for a test drive.”


	3. The Ka Hunt

Within the shadowy chamber, the only source of light was a lone torch flickering in a holder by the entrance.  Circling the dungeon was a series of small, cramped cells, currently empty apart from the two weary duellists. The cold air was stagnant and reeked of stale copper and rot.  Hanging limply from the dungeon walls were rows of shackles, rusted where the metal had bit too deeply into human skin.  In the center of the room where the man lounged, was a smooth slab of stone slanted at an angle that afforded anyone unlucky enough to be viewing it from the cells a clear view of a body that might have been unfortunate enough to be strapped to it.

 

“I do apologize for the dreary accommodations,” said the man, twisting his features with exaggerated concern.  “Had I known you two boys would be joining us, I would have prepared something a bit more… exciting.”  He then smiled like a snake, thin and sharp with dark intent.  Beside him, the winged beast spirit stirred restlessly, latching on to the two boys with its baleful stare. 

 

Judai and Yusei involuntarily flinched back when the monster suddenly lunged towards them, crashing angrily against the metal bars.  It cawed tauntingly at its captive audience, talons reaching greedily through the gaps.  Luckily for them, the creature’s size which had made it absolutely lethal in the desert now hindered it inside the low-ceilinged dungeon.  Too large to properly fit through the gaps of the cell, the creature scraped ineffectually at the air in front of the two boys’ tense faces.  But then, accompanied by a groan, the aged metal began to buckle and bend under the force of the massive creature’s scrabbling efforts. 

 

With a crack, the bars splintered in a scatter of metal and stone which had Yusei and Judai hastily ducking their heads to avoid the shrapnel.  When the debris settled, the two only had a second to react before the monster sprung at them.

 

“Now, Yusei!” Judai shouted.  With a final wrench, the manacles binding them together came apart from Yusei’s ministrations and the two threw themselves in opposite directions as the monster grasped at empty air. 

 

Broken shackles in hand, Yusei rolled to his feet and flung them towards the dungeon’s entrance, knocking the torch free of its holder and plunging the chamber into darkness.  The avian monster let out a cry and struck out wildly.  Taking advantage of its confusion, Judai and Yusei pried themselves from the crumbling cell and darted out, hoping to catch the bandit leader off guard. 

 

“Elemental Hero Sparkman!” Judai shouted, pulling the card free and forcing the summon through, in spite of his depleted reserves.  A glowing white circle materialized before him and the gold clad warrior surged forward with electricity crackling at his fingertips, this time aiming directly at the their abductor.

 

Momentarily startled, the bandit looked up just in time to see the crackling fist speeding towards his widened eyes.

 

Then he smirked.  He threw his head back with his arms spread wide and chanted.

 

“ _Protective Seal: Swords of Light!_ ”

 

A wall of swirling energy stopped the hero’s attack short, before exploding outwards into shards of white light.  Judai and Yusei gasped in shock and pain as the shards stabbed into their limbs, throwing them back against the dungeon walls, pinning the two of them like butterflies in an exhibit.  Sparkman snarled at his master’s plight but the spell and also caught him unprepared and rendered him powerless.

 

Upon realizing its prey was concerned, the overgrown bird squawked with savage delight, its golden eyes scanning the dungeon before alighting on the paralyzed Slifer Red duelist.  The monster shot forward with its beak stretched wide.

 

“Judai!” Yusei screamed, straining against the spell.

 

“Stop.” The man spoke up and the monster instantly stilled, inches away from tearing into the brunette. “Let’s not get too carried away.”  

 

Almost reluctantly, the creature peeled itself away from its intended victim, but not without darting forward with a last snap of its beak which had Judai hurriedly retracting a booted foot.  With an affronted flap of its wings, the creature faded out of existence and re-materialized behind its owner once again.  The braided man stretched his arm out and clicked his fingers.  To Judai and Yusei’s surprise, the monster’s image rippled.  Feathers and claws peeled away like water draining from a sink, leaving it its place a blue-robed entity clutching at a mirror in front of its face.

 

 “Now, allow me to formally introduce myself,” the bandit said with a deep, sweeping bow. “I am Khaldun, the Illusionist.  This lovely versatile creature here is my familiar, Copycat.  Copycat has the ability to copy and match the appearance and abilities of any person or _Ka_ it battles. Although it seems that he likes to copy their bad habits as well.” 

 

_…the abilities of any monster it battles…_ Judai’s eyes widened.  _But that means…!_

 

A smug grin split the bandit’s face as he let the implications sink in. “And I have the perfect guinea pig.  Copycat, _Master of Disguise!_ ”  The creature chittered and Judai saw its mirror tilt towards his restrained warrior and flash gold.  The monster began to glow and warp, limbs stretching.  Blue and gold rippled out of its skin and encased its body like a cocoon.  From the sphere sprouted arms, legs and a mask, forming a horribly familiar silhouette.

 

“That’s…” Yusei gasped as the new figure emerged.

 

“…Elemental Hero Sparkman!” Judai finished with a growl.  “Just what are you planning?!”

 

“Do you know what fuels your _Ka_?” The bandit purred, circling around them like a cobra coiling around its prey.  “Pain.  Desperation. Fear.  From my experience, these are excellent motivators to coax just a little more _juice_ out of my toys.  Let’s see how well this works on you.”

 

_“Spark flash!”_

 

The imitation monster punched out, slamming its cracking fists into the air. With no way to evade, the two cried out in alarm and pain as they were hit by the full brunt of the monster’s attack.  With Judai’s concentration broken, the real Sparkman disappeared with a howl. As the sparks died down, Yusei and Judai collapsed, held up only by the swords of light stabbed through their bodies, panting and staring down the wrong end of the fake hero’s gauntlets.

 

The man inspected their crumpled forms and shook his head in distain.  “Done already? I was just getting started.”

 

Judai lifted his head with effort. “Is that the best you can do?  The real Sparkman isn’t this pathetic!”

 

_“_ Judai _…_ ”From across the dungeon, Yusei tried to catch his friend’s attention, blue eyes dark with worry. _Don’t provoke him. You can see it in his eyes.  This man… is merciless!_

 

“Still mouthy, are you?” The man tapped his chin in thought.  “Hmm… What was it that you called your _Ka_?  Ah yes, Elemental _Hero_ Sparkman, was it?  It seems to me that you have a bit of a saving people thing.  Then maybe _this_ will be a better source motivation?”  He thrust out a hand, palm facing toward the brown-haired boy and chanted.

 

“ _Chain Energy!”_

 

A ball of white energy swirled into existence and shot like a javelin towards the Slifer Red duelist, before abruptly veering away.  To Judai’s horror, the searing hot energy twisted around Yusei’s limbs and dragged him into the air with bruising force, leaving angry red welts where it touched his bare skin and burned through the fabric of his coat.  The D-Wheeler hung limply, strung up like a rag doll with his wrists bound painfully above his head. 

 

The bandit’s leer took on a much more grotesque appearance.  “That’s a good look for you.”

 

Yusei gasped as the chains suddenly crackled and a torrent of agony ripped through his body.  Dimly, as his senses slowly crawled back, he became aware of a metallic wetness in his mouth where he had bitten through his lower lip in an effort to hold back a cry.

 

“Yusei!  _Yusei_!” Judai lashed out wildly against his bindings, eyes now glowing in an animalistic fury.  The swords pinning him exploded forth, fragments of light splintering into nothingness before they could even hit the ground.  Judai wobbled unsteadily for a moment before he recovered his footing as he fixed the bandit with a piercing yellow glare.  “Let him go!”

 

Khaldun whistled, delighted at the boy’s anger.  “It looks like I’ve finally pressed the right button.”

 

“Let. Him. Go.”

 

“Why don’t we play a little game instead?  If you win, I’ll let you and your pretty little boyfriend go.  But if you lose, the two of you will have to play nice with me until you die.”

 

“Judai… don’t…” Yusei forced out amid pained gasps.

 

Judai refused to meet his eyes.  “I’m sorry… this is my fault.”

 

“Copycat!”  At his master’s command, his _Ka_ , still wrapped in its false blue and gold skin, bowed lowly and vanished. Moments later, it reappeared carrying a large wooden barrel. The monster set it down gingerly and lifted the lid to reveal a twisted black mass of coiling snakes.

 

Judai glared at the bandit.  “What is this?”

 

“This? This is the game,” Khaldun drawled.  He held up a hand with three gold pieces wedged between each of his fingers.  With a casual flick, he sent them clattering into the darkness of the barrel. “There are twenty snakes inside this container.  Most of them are harmless, but one of them possesses a bite that can kill a grown man in thirty seconds.  The two of us will take turns reaching inside without looking until all the coins have been retrieved.  The one who can collect the most coins will win.  Simple, isn’t it?”

 

“And if we happen to get bitten by your death snake?” Judai demanded.  “What then?”

 

“Well that would be an automatic loss.  But rest assured, should you _unfortunately_ die, I will take good care of your friend here.”

 

“And what if _you_ die instead?”

 

Khaldun grinned unpleasantly.  “Then of course, you are free to go.”

 

Judai let out a cynical snort.  “I don’t see your lackeys being very happy about that,” he retorted.

 

“I see that you doubt me,” replied Khaldun with feigned distress.  “Very well then.  As a gesture of goodwill, I’ll let you have the first two turns!”

 

“What?” Judai asked, taken aback.  “Why would you do that?”

 

The man clicked his tongue impatiently.  “You do realize that the more you stall, the longer _he_ gets to suffer?”

 

Sneaking a quick look at Yusei’s battered and half-conscious form, Judai gnashed his teeth together.  “Fine!  I’ll accept your terms!”

 

Khaldun cackled.  “That’s what I like to hear!”

 

_“Game, start!”_

 

Judai approached the barrel in trepidation.  As he neared, the snakes reared back, hissing in warning.  The brunette shut his eyes tightly and reached in, grimly.  Several seconds passed in silence as Judai rummaged around, perspiration dotting his temples.  Then, he withdrew his arm with a gasp and something gold glinted from his tightly clenched fingers.

 

“Oh my.  Now that’s something,” the man commented softly from where he reclined, delicately propping his chin upon laced fingers.  “I didn’t expect you to get one quite so quickly.”

 

Judai squeezed his fist around his prize, shooting another worried glance at his friend.  “One more… one more and you’ll let us go, right?”

 

“Of course.  You have my word,” Khaldun reassured.

 

Judai took a deep, steadying breath.  The snakes, now stirred into a frenzied wakefulness by his proximity, began to writhe and snap at the air in anticipation.  Squeezing his eyes shut once again, Judai took the plunge.  He let out a pained yelp, snatching his arm back from the barrel and clutching tightly at his wrist with his other hand.  “D-Dammit…”

 

“I may have neglected to mention this,” the bandit admitted, smirking at Judai’s swaying form, “while the rest of the snakes are not deadly, Ì never said they weren`t poisonous.”

 

Raising his weary head, Yusei snarled in outrage.  “You… that’s why you purposely forced him to go first!”

 

“I didn’t force the poor boy into anything.  He was just so _eager_ to save you he practically just jumped right in!”

 

“You…!”

 

Any further baiting from the bandit leader was cut short when Judai began to chuckle.  Khaldun turned his attention back on the boy in the red jacket who was now doubled over in mirth.

 

“Judai…?” ventured Yusei hesitantly. 

 

“Sorry for the scare, Yusei,” Judai said apologetically, shooting the other boy a sheepish smile.  He then turned to address the bandit, smile stretching into something wide and cheeky.  “It didn’t take a genius to see that you were setting me up from the start.  So I purposely pretended to get bitten to see how you would react.”

 

“Oh, how cute,” said the bandit derisively.  “Then how did you manage to get your first coin?”

 

“Who says I did?”

 

“What? Then what was…”

 

“What, this?” asked Judai.  He held up his fist and unfurled his fingers, revealing a small object which was rounded and golden, but was definitely not a coin.  “This is just a bottle cap!” he announced, flicking it up in the air and catching it one-handed.  “You said we had to take turns reaching in… but you never said we actually had to _try_ to grab one.”

 

At the other duellist’s audacity, Yusei shook with suppressed laughter than he suspected if vocalized would have more resembled giggles.

 

 “You little bastard,” the man exclaimed, almost wonderingly. 

 

“Now,” said Judai, steeling his expression.  “It’s your turn.  Will you get a coin, or will the snakes get you first?”

 

A tick developed in the corner of Khaldun’s eye and his smile grew sickly.  He began to applaud with a slow, sarcastic clap that echoed hollow within the stone walls.  “You’ve really got some nerve,” he said.

 

Judai jabbed an impatient thumb in the direction of the barrel.  “Now who’s stalling?  Hurry up!”

 

The man pushed off from the platform, his expression shaded by his thick mass of braids, his shoulders beginning to shake.  Judai tensed and readied himself for retaliation but then realized something, to his surprise. 

 

Khaldun was chuckling.  “Oh, I _like_ you!  I’m starting to think I might have been too hasty writing you two off as mere fodder.”

 

“That doesn’t make me happy at all,” Judai hissed, still on guard. 

 

“It’s been a long time since anyone has dared to try something like that against me.  I think you deserve to be rewarded.”  The man clicked his fingers.  With a crack like a rubber band snapping, the spell holding Yusei captive disintegrated and the black haired boy hit the ground with a low groan.  Judai immediately ran over, gingerly placing his hands on his companion’s shoulders.

 

“Yusei, are you alright?” he demanded, looking rather panicky, quickly giving his wounds a once over.  Luckily, his injuries appeared mostly superficial.

 

Yusei smiled to show that he was fine, though it came out a bit shaky.  “I’m fine, Judai.  Thanks to you.”

 

Judai shook his head in denial.  “It’s my fault.  I should have kept my mouth shut.” 

 

“Don’t blame yourself,” Yusei admonished gently as he struggled to his feet with the other boy’s help.  “He would have used anything as an excuse to torment us.”

 

“If you two are finished _flirting_ ,” the bandit remarked dryly, inspecting his nails, “I’d like to move on.”

 

“What? Not going to take your turn after all?” Yusei asked sardonically, indicating the hissing container. 

 

Khaldun sniffed, waving a dismissive hand. “I’ve grown rather bored of it.  Especially with a certain little someone cheating.”

 

“You bastard!” Judai spat.  “If anyone was cheating, it was you!”

 

“Well of course I was.  You didn’t think I liked _losing_ , did you?”

 

“Boss!”

 

The trap door suddenly swung open and four new bandits emerged, inching down the steps with a pinched looks on their faces.

 

“What is it now?” demanded the leader, facing the newcomers with a raised brow. The fake Sparkman seemed in share in its master’s sentiments and aimed its gauntlets threateningly in their direction.

 

“The buyer is here, sir,” one of the men reported, fiddling with the hem of his sleeve.  “He said he wants to speak to you.”

 

“Oh?” asked Khaldun with an arched brow.  “What is he doing here? We sent the last batch just two days ago.”

 

“I don’t know, boss.  But he’s brought a buncha men with him.”

 

He huffed impatiently.  “Fine, I’ll go see what they want.  Get these two back in their cell.  And this time, tie them up with something they can’t break out of.” 

 

“Yes, sir!” The men belted out an affirmative and marched over to the two duellists, roughly dragging them apart.

 

“Sorry boys, looks like we’ll have to cut our game short,” Khaldun said, reaching out to give Yusei’s cheek a condescending pat.  Yusei growled in response and shrugged his hand off roughly.  Undaunted, Khaldun smirked at him lazily.  “I’ll be right back,” he promised them sweetly.  “You boys just sit tight.  Don’t get too comfortable.”

 

“Bite me,” said Judai, flashing the most insolent sneer he could muster.

 

“Oh, I plan to.  But first, Daddy has to see about our uninvited guest.”  He brushed off his tunic disdainfully and turned towards the exit as the Sparkman copy wisped into smoke.  The man’s footsteps echoed hollowly around the small chamber as they disappeared up the steps.  With a shrill creak, the metal grated shut, leaving the boys trapped inside with their new wardens.

 

\--

 

Trailing behind two of his other followers, Khaldun marched into the village square where a small contingent of robed men awaited him.  The other villagers tentatively gathered around them with hushed whispers.  

 

“What can I do you for, gentlemen?” the bandit boss addressed them with a hint of impatience, placing a hand on a cocked hip.  “Not satisfied with your last purchase?”

 

“Oh, no,” replied one of the men, stepping forward.  He was tall and sported a thin, reedy looking goatee.  “It is always a pleasure to do business with you.”

 

“Then what brings you here?” he asked petulantly.  “How very rude of you not to send a messenger ahead.”

 

“I have some unfortunate news to deliver, thus I have come in person,” said his uninvited guest with an exaggerated frown.

 

“What news?” Khaldun demanded, suddenly alert.

 

“You have served us well thus far...  But Lord Akhenaden has no further need for your services.”

 


	4. The Uninvited Guests

**Bonds Across Time**

**Summary** : Paradox's grand experiment was not without consequences. (Alternatively: Yusei and Judai's misadventures on a time traveling motorcycle.) Pre-slash. Slowly progressing Starshipping.

 

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

The air buzzed with tension as the villagers traded uneasy looks amongst themselves.

" _Lord Akhenaden?"_

" _What is going on?"_

" _What does someone that important have to do with us?"_

Khaldun held up a hand, quelling the frantic whispering. "Akhenaden has no need for my services?" he repeated softly, menace etched into every crevice of his face. "What are you talking about now? I've kept my end of the bargain; I give you what you want and you stay far,  _far_  away from my village."

"That was the plan, yes," the man replied. "But recent developments have led us to conclude that you and your beloved little village can serve us in… different ways."

"Well, that's just too bad." Khaldun waved a dismissive hand and turned his back on the robed men. "I don't have anything to do with Akhenaden anymore. Men, show our guests out." The bandits stepped forward with their weapons gripped tightly.

"Ah, ah, ah," the man lifted his hands in a helpless shrug, shaking his head with disappointment. "It was your continued cooperation that allowed us to overlook many things, Khaldun. Including your little… treason. I'm afraid we can no longer afford to be quite so generous."

"Hmph," scoffed Khaldun, spinning back around at the not so subtle threat. "You're talking big. But you forget, you were never a match for me, Atenza."

The robed man's thin bloodless lips drew back into a sour smile. "That's where you're wrong, Khaldun. Through the powers of darkness, I have obtained a power beyond imagination!" The previously still figures behind him suddenly sprang into life and arranged themselves around their leader in a protective formation.

"What are you blabbering about?" Khaldun demanded. Beside him, his  _Ka_  materialized, still wearing its stolen armoured form and raised sparking gauntlets in anticipation. Without any of them noticing, a dark shroud had begun to settle over the village square, sending an icy chill which crept into their bones.

The man named Atenza laughed, a shrill, ugly sound. As he shrugged off his robes, the onlookers' eyes were helplessly drawn towards the center of his chest where a strange pronged pendant hung, inscribed with a sinister gold eye.

 

* * *

 

Yusei and Judai were being led to separate cells across the prison when the shrieks began to rip through the air, startling the bandits into inaction.

For several seconds, no one dared to move, straining their ears to make out what was happening beyond the trapdoor.

"What is going on?" demanded one of the men who had been in the process of binding Judai's arms behind his back.

"I'm going to go see," another declared as he began to head up the steps to investigate but stumbled when something exploded against the stone above them.

Then a second impact, stronger than the first sent all of them tripping over the feet trying to avoid a shower of debris. As one, Yusei, Judai and the bandits looked up in alarm. Time seemed freeze as jagged lines began to etch themselves across the stone above them.

Then the ceiling caved in.

"Yusei!" Judai shouted. He shook off the stupefied bandit's hold and dived at the other boy, throwing the both of them out from beneath the path of the falling chunks of ceiling. There was a sound like bones crunching, and then a howl. Yusei and Judai turned their alarmed gazes back to see that one of the men who had been standing off to the side had not been as lucky; white-faced and moaning, he strained uselessly against a piece of debris which laid on top of his ruined leg.

The boys could hear the other men yelp and curse as they tried to avoid sharing their comrade's crushing fate. Two of them ran for the exit, screaming, only to become red smears on the ground as an enormous green foot smashed right through where the trapdoor had been merely seconds before. The foot was followed by a grasping pair of equally enormous hands which reached inside the dungeon and plucked the remaining bandit into the air. The thing regarded him curiously with its single purple eye before swallowing him whole, muffling his screams.

For a moment, Judai and Yusei were frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at the man's vanishing legs before they hastily scrambled away as the Cyclops reached for another morsel. The monster's eye scanned the cell, first tracing the figure of the half-crushed man lying trapped under the debris before sweeping over to where the two duellists stood. Letting out an awful noise that might have been triumph, it extended a clawed four-fingered hand towards them.

Hastily, the two boys dodged its slow-moving grasp and, lacking a better alternative, ran for the other side of the dungeon which suddenly seemed much smaller than before when dwarfed by a twelve-meter flesh-eater.

Lacking the necessary fine motor skills, the creature growled in frustration and swiped wildly at its escaping quarry. It missed by a long shot but the swing generated a shock wave powerful enough to knock Judai and Yusei off their feet. Groaning, they pushed themselves onto their knees just as the giant's hand was about to close around them. Yusei was unable to hold back a flinch, forcibly reminded of being at the mercy of a different giant and the echoes of insane laughter. Beside him, the Slifer Red gritted his teeth, furiously debating his options when a voice only he could hear called out to him.

_Judai!_

Warm relief flooded through him, accompanied by a surge of renewed power as his other half finally woke from her slumber. "Yusei, stay behind me!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and running forward to meet their enemy. Yusei shouted his name in alarm and instinctively reached out to stop him, but pulled his gloved fingers back at the last moment, placing his faith in the other.

Judai reached for his duel disk, a broad grin stretched across his face when he felt it grow hot as if in answer, revealing the top card with a flourish. "It's about time," he said triumphantly, dual-toned eyes glowing as he generously poured his rejuvenated energy into materializing the form of his spirit partner. "Yubel!"

In a swirl of vivid violet light, a terrifying demonic figure emerged, leathery wings wrapped around herself like a protective cocoon. Dichromatic eyes snapped open and the figure unfurled her limbs and turned to regard her partner, expression souring when she noticed the numerous scrapes and bruises across his visible skin.

"Judai," she chided, not unlike an angry parent, "I expressly told you to stay out of trouble!"

"Now's not the time, Yubel. You can scold me later! There's something just a little bit more important here." Judai said, holding up his hands placatingly.

"Oh, very well," Yubel replied, with a sigh born of long suffering as she turned disdainfully towards the cyclops.

Undeterred by the new arrival, the monster continued its attack and brought down its meaty fists. Yubel made no move to evade or defend and spread her arms in mocking invitation. To Yusei's surprise, the cyclops seemed to meet an invisible barrier and its attack ricocheted off, striking it in its own massive eye. The blue giant let out a howl and reared back, crushing the surrounding buildings beneath its clawed feet. After sharing a nod with Judai, Yubel flew after it, gathering a ball of dark energy between her palms and released it with a powerful jolt. The energy shot forward like a spear and pierced the monster straight through what remained of its eye and with one final shudder, the massive body fell, scattering into fading embers as it hit the ground.

After the dust settled, Judai let out a low whistle of appreciation. "Nice one, Yubel." He quickly glanced back to make sure that Yusei hadn't been harmed from the fallout of the attack and grinned in relief when the black-haired boy nodded at him, as serious as ever.

Yubel gently lowered herself until she hovered about a foot from the ground next to the two boys and fixed her partner with a stern gaze. "Judai, you should have been able to take care of this small fry with ease," she chided.

"Hey, who was the one who overslept?" Judai countered, even as a wide grin stretched across his face. "Man, I've never been so happy to see you."

"You should always be happy to see me," Yubel remarked absently and turned to eye the black-haired duelist who had kept a respectful distance during their reunion. "Yusei, was it?" she asked, just a bit too neutrally.

"Yes," Yusei replied, growing slightly wary at her tone. "Thank you for saving us."

Yubel hummed low under her breath and took stock of their immediate surroundings. The prison was now not much more than a pathetic smouldering hole; the roof was all but gone, first from the giant's violent entrance, then from the shockwaves generated by her attack. But from the scatter of broken shackles and a decaying scent that lingered in the air, it was more than obvious that the two boys had not been having a pleasant time.

"So. What have you gotten my Judai into this time?" she asked, coldly.

Judai made a strangled noise in his throat. "What are you talking about?" he demanded, immediately leaping to Yusei's defence. "If anything, I should be the one who's-"

Yusei placed a hand on his shoulder, stalling his protest. "Yubel," he addressed the spirit, returning her piercing gaze with clear blue eyes, "I will make no excuses; I was the one who put Judai in danger because I was too weak to face Paradox alone. It never even occurred to me to think about how we would get back. All I can promise you now is that I will do everything in my power to see you and Judai safely back in your own time."

"Yusei…" Judai blinked at his words, feeling his face grow oddly warm. He chuckled sheepishly and scratched at his reddened cheeks. "Ah, I'm not really used to being on the receiving end of something like that. And besides, I'd much rather be here with you if the alternative meant you'd have to face all this by yourself!"

"Hn," said Yubel after a considering pause. "Well, I suppose Judai has a knack for getting into messes well enough on his own. Even without you, I don't doubt he would have gotten all wrapped up in this anyway. And from the looks of it, you've done a decent job babysitting him. You have my thanks for that."

Judai sputtered indignantly, but this time for a completely different reason. "Wait, what? Babysitting?"

"Thank you, Yubel," Yusei replied solemnly, as if Judai hadn't spoken.

"Yeah, Yubel. Thanks for that vote of non-confidence," Judai grumbled at the pair. "It's not like we're still under attack or anything." With the walls down, the screaming from the village center was now all too clear. The sky was dyed grey with smoke and ash. It appeared that the remote location of the prison put them out of the epicenter of the attack but they could tell from the growing noise that danger was heading in their direction.

"Judai is right," Yubel said, switching to a business-like tone. "You need to decide on your next course of action."

"Right now, our priority is still to get out of here and figure out a way to get back to our original timelines," said Yusei.

Judai hummed in agreement, and tapped his chin. "And there's a good chance we'll need to get back the way we came so that definitely means we'll need Yusei's D-Wheel. But the problem is they could have stashed our stuff anywhere. How will we find it  _and_  avoid being squashed by the monsters?"

Several feet away, as if on cue, the remaining survivor from the crew of bandits let out a moan, causing Judai and Yusei to jump, having completely forgotten about his presence. The two hurried over with Yubel drifting reluctantly after them.

"Are you alright?" asked Yusei, crouching down next to the whimpering man.

The bandit made a strangled noise in his throat as he stared blankly at the spot where his comrades had been standing. One of his legs was pinned to the ground by the rubble, and from the sheer amount of red seeping into the surrounding area, it was likely that the limb was beyond salvaging. Concerned, Yusei reached out, hoping to bring him out of his stupor, but he flinched away, dislodging his head-covering just enough for the two boys to realize that they knew him.

"Kasiya?!" Judai exclaimed. "Hey, hold on for a moment. We're going to get you outta there, okay?"

Whatever response the man would have given was drowned out by a deafening roar. Yusei and Judai looked through the ruined ceiling just in time to see the scaled underbelly of what appeared to be a huge blue dragon zip by overhead. After several seconds, the boys stopped holding their breaths when it seemed the monster was not about to head back in their direction.

"We can't stay here," concluded Judai.

Yusei nodded and looked out to the smoke rising from the village center, then back towards Kasiya's shell shocked form. "But it doesn't seem right to leave him here."

"What are you talking about?" Yubel took the opportunity to interject. "He's one of the men who tried to hurt my Judai. Leaving him here is more than he deserves."

"Sorry Yubel, but I'm with Yusei. He was nice to us, sort of. And besides…" Judai trailed off, remembering all too well what it was like to see your comrades die in front of you, one by one. Yubel let out a sigh and conceded defeat.

"...Fine. But I'm not happy with this," she cautioned as she began to fade from view. "He's going to slow us down and we can't afford that."

"We'll manage, somehow," Judai argued.

Together, Yusei and Judai dislodged the rubble and painstakingly pulled the injured man loose. Upon seeing the state of his mangled flesh, they flinched, realizing that it could have just as easily been one of them.

"How's he doing?" Judai asked, mostly hanging back and hovering over Yusei's shoulder as he didn't know the first thing about first aid.

"The bones in his leg were crushed," Yusei replied with furrowed brows as he did his best to tend to the man's limb, trying to stave off the blood loss. "But he doesn't seem to be in pain. Most likely from shock or nerve damage."

"But at least he's alive for now," replied Judai, wincing in sympathy.

It was only after Yusei bound the leg tightly in a makeshift splint with some torn cloth and a long piece of wood that the man seemed to register their presence at all.

"You kids…" he mumbled, eyes slowly refocusing. "...are you… helping me?"

"Try to stay calm," Yusei said plainly, after exchanging a concerned glance with the Judai.

"...what's the point? What the hell can we do against  _monsters_?" The man mumbled, quietly at first but ended up as a scream. "We're all just going to die anyway!"

"We're not going to die at all!" growled Judai. "So don't give up from the beginning!"

"Kasiya," Yusei interjected levelly. "Do you know what's going on here? Why is the village under attack?"

The bald man howled. "How should I know?! I was too busy trying not to die!"

"When you came in, one of your comrades said something about a buyer. What did he mean?" Yusei pressed on.

Kasiya blinked slowly at the change in topic. "Those were the guys I was telling you about. The ones rounding up people with  _heka_. ... You don't think...?"

"Guess this," said Judai, indicating the chaos around them, "is what happens when you go around making deals with shady people."

"Well, what do you want me to do about it now?" Kasiya scowled, wrinkling his dark skin. "Just... Leave me in a ditch somewhere."

"We're not exactly thrilled with your hospitality so far," said Yusei, somewhat dryly, "but at the very least, we don't want you to die if we can help it. Is there somewhere safe we can get you to?"

" _You_ look around and tell  _me_ if it looks like there is anywhere safe! But..." Kasiya trailed off, eyes widening in realization, "there is a storage area that Master Khaldun warded using powerful spells against intruders!"

"That guy," said Judai, face darkening with a complicated mix of emotions. "He's something, isn't he?" Yusei shot him a calming look, wordlessly reminding him to focus.

"Yeah, he is!" replied Kasiya, immediately perking up, seemingly unable to pick up his meaning. "He used to be a high priest who served the Pharaoh!"

"The pharaoh?" Yusei echoed. "Then what is he doing here?" And terrifying the populace, he didn't add.

"No one knows why he left the palace, but this village is his hometown. He said something about how the higher ups were making decisions he didn't agree with."

"Probably didn't let him torture enough people or something," Judai muttered uncharitably, quiet enough that only Yusei could hear him, who couldn't help but be amused, all things considered.

"Alright," said Yusei. "We'll get you to this shelter."

The bandit gave them a slow, sideways glance. "Right now it is mostly being used to store our, er, loot. But... your stuff is probably there too."

Judai immediately brightened up. "That's great! It'll be two birds with one stone!"

But the man began to look even more nervous. "The only problem is…" Kasiya turned his head in the direction of the village center where smoke could be seen billowing up from ruined buildings. "It's kind of that way."

Their first order of business was to get out of ruined pit. Though the dungeon walls had not been particularly tall, climbing the loosened rubble while towing a man who was almost literally deadweight became rather challenging, almost enough to make them regret being such good Samaritans.

Eventually, after a bit of trial and error, they fastened a make-shift harness for the injured man and they used to boost him up, taking care not to exacerbate his wounded leg.

When they reached ground-level, the sight that greeted them was even less welcoming than the remnants of the bloodied prison. Thick gashes ran across the earth like it had been gored by claws. The surrounding stone buildings were strewn across the streets like toy blocks knocked over by a careless twelve foot tall child. Several bodies, souvenirs of the Cyclops's visit, lay half-buried beneath the rubble with discarded weapons just out of reach. From their garb, they had likely been more members of Khaldun's bandits. Yusei and Judai steadfastly averted their eyes, unable to meet the vacant, unseeing gazes.

Slinging Kasiya's arms over their shoulders, the two boys cautiously navigated the uneven ground, scanning the shadows for any sudden movements that could signal an enemy's approach. This became that much more difficult as cold fog slowly rolled into the streets, covering the horizon in a thick cloak of white. Despite this, the three managed to make their way through several blocks, utterly unhindered and without meeting a single soul, human or otherwise.

Somehow, the village had grown still without their notice. Unnaturally, unsettlingly so.

"It's too quiet," Judai hissed under his breath to his companions at last, unable to bear the silence. "We should have come across someone or  _something_ by now."

"Where the hell  _is_  everyone?" Kasiya demanded. "Where did the monsters go?"

"Judai," Yusei said suddenly, bringing them to a stop. "I think I see something."

Ahead of them, dark, slow-moving shapes started to drift through the fog. Wordlessly, Judai and Yusei dragged themselves and their new ally off to the side and crouched down behind a partially collapsed wall, just out of sight. Waiting with bated breath, the three of them peered along the edges as the figures came into view.

What they saw gave them few answers but opened up dozens of horrible new questions.

The shadows revealed themselves to be the missing villagers that they had been speculating about.

But, they moved strangely, walking slowly and orderly through the streets, both young and old. There was none of the expected hysteria, no trace of urgency in their faces as they only gazed blankly at something in the distance, moving as one as if marching to a silent tune only they could hear.

When it looked like the villagers wouldn't be noticing them any time soon, Judai spoke up, sounding rather freaked. "Okay. Something is definitely wrong here."

"That doesn't even need saying!" Kasiya mumbled with a full-body shudder. "What have they done to them?!"

Yusei's eyes narrowed, scanning the crowd. "They're being controlled by someone," he said. "It looks like whoever is attacking the village wants to take prisoners and limit casualties to a minimum."

"And it's probably not out of the goodness of their hearts either," Judai lamented. "But if they're being controlled, someone must be pulling the strings."

As the words sunk in, Kasiya blanched. "You mean that we might end up like them? Ra damnit, I'm just a grunt, I can't deal with all this magic crap!"

"Whatever they are using likely doesn't work on everyone," Yusei replied, thoughtfully. "If the attacker is "the buyer", then very likely their primary objective is still to capture humans for whatever reason so it is in their interests not to kill everyone."

"So you're saying, but if they could do  _this_ , then why the monsters?" continued Judai.

"Exactly," replied Yusei. "Whoever is doing this probably has limits to how many people they can control. And they've summoned duel monsters to take care of whoever can fight back."

"Very clever, for a filthy commoner that is," a new voice cut in and Judai and Yusei leapt to their feet to face the speaker, alarm etched on their faces.

Standing behind them was a tall, thin man with his features mostly obscured by hooded robes. What little they could see of his face revealed a wrinkled chin and thin, bloodless lips permanently curled in disdain. From his extravagant robes, it was obvious that he was someone of import. But their attention was drawn to the staff clutched in his fist: made of solid gold embedded with a familiar glowing eye.

"That staff..." Yusei muttered under his breath, "It looks just like Yugi-san's pendant."

"Yeah," replied Judai, glaring through narrowed eyes. "That thing is a millennium item. Yugi-san dealt with them at Battle City. They have all sorts of powers, including the power to steal souls and control people's minds!"

"Ho?" The man's pursed lips suddenly drew back in an ugly snarl, having much sharper ears than Judai expected. "That is some knowledge you've got, boy. I would very much like to know how you got your filthy little hands on it. After all... these items have been created not even three days ago!"

Judai blinked, taken aback and traded slightly panicked looks with the taller boy. It looked like he had probably just broken one of the rudimental rules of time travel: not to draw unnecessary attention.

The man stalked towards them, long robes brushing the sand. "Either you are very poor spies, or we have overestimated our secret-keepers. But no matter, we shall pry it out of you all the same. Your earlier theory was only half correct; I merely find all the screaming and  _resistance_  so distasteful. I much prefer you just...  _Obey_." Without any warning, he raised his rod high into the air as the glowing symbol of the millennium items appeared on his forehead.

Judai and Yusei cringed as the eldritch light washed over them in blinding waves, as the brainwashed villagers looked on with dull, vacant gazes.

 

* * *

 

A/N: As usual, heaps of thanks to my beta-readers! If you have a moment, let me know what you think. (It motivates me to write faster.)


	5. The Hall of Mirrors

**Bonds Across Time**

 

 **Summary** :  Paradox’s grand experiment was not without consequences.  (Alternatively: Yusei and Judai’s misadventures on a time traveling motorcycle.)  Pre-slash. Slowly progressing Starshipping.

 

 

* * *

**Chapter 5**

* * *

 

 

The sun had climbed to the highest point in the sky, blaring down at the sand below, superheating the air until it turned dry and clung like paste to the lungs of any creature that breathed it in. Wisps of steam hissed and rose like living things from the desert's parched earth.  

 

But summer seemed to have fled the confines of the small village; a dark, cold miasma had risen up, quietly and insidiously, blotting out the blue sky and creeping over the high, stone walls and into the rough, winding streets. Beneath the violet clouds, the villagers continued to march through them in eerie unison, heading towards an unknown destination.

 

* * *

 

With a gasp, Judai pushed himself off the ground, a hand immediately shooting up to press against his aching eyes. He stayed like that for several moments, sitting on his knees and face buried in his massaging fingers. Groaning, he stretched out and blearily attempted to take stock of his surroundings but nothing was making sense.

 

" _Judai_ ," an insistent voice whispered into his ear. " _Pull yourself together_!"

 

"What is going on?" He wondered aloud before wincing at the volume of his own voice.

 

The voice came again. " _Wake up, Judai! You have to get out of here_!"

 

Judai blinked and finally managed to brush aside the fog in his head. Slowly, his vision cleared and his surroundings swam into view, but leaving him feeling more confused than ever.

 

"Where the heck am I?" He demanded as he found himself standing alone in a crossroads of mirrored hallways which appeared to stretch out endlessly in all directions, grimly lit by a nonexistent light source. The glass was dull and filled with dusty reflections.

 

" _Run, Judai! Hurry_!" The voice called, this time a shout.  Startled into action without really thinking about it, Judai obeyed.  Something inside him instinctively trusted the speaker. As he ran, he saw snatches of color and echoes of remembered conversations from the corner of his eye. Then, something caught his attention and despite the voice's sharp warning, he paused, fingers hovering uncertainly over one of the frosted reflections.

 

As his fingertips brushed over the glass, the mirror suddenly bloomed into a sudden rush of vivid color and sound. He saw himself, years younger with a blue haired boy's arms draped over his shoulders, laughing brightly without a care in the world. With a jolt, he realized he recognized those shining green eyes.

 

"Jo...han?" He murmured and pressed closer.  The imaged warped and shifted. Lazy afternoons spent napping together on the duel academy rooftop. Watching helplessly as the boy faced off against a ruthless mercenary who twisted his gifts. Standing on a stage in a strange desert world, reaching for the other boy who was mournfully bidding him farewell as the light bore him away. Kneeling in the coliseum as the mad king's words echoed ceaselessly through his head ' _the boy you call Johan isdeaddeaddead-'_

 

_"JUDAI."_

 

With a sharp intake of breath, Judai pulled back, breaking the connection and the mirror's surface reverted back to its dull state. He took several steadying breaths, staring at his hands.

 

"Yubel," he finally addressed the voice. "Those were my memories. Where am I? Is this... inside my head?"

 

 _"You have to hurry, Judai,"_ Yubel's voice repeated, more urgent than ever.

 

Judai shook his head in denial. "I don't understand!  What happened? The last thing I remember is... Yusei! Where is Yusei?!"

 

" _Yusei is in danger. But more importantly, so are you."_

 

In the distance, Judai heard something like glass shattering and reeled back as a sharp pain struck his head.  "What was that?!" He demanded, clutching his head.

 

" _An intruder..._ "

 

"When did you get to be so cryptic?" Judai complained, frustration building up. "Just what am I supposed to do?!" Then came a smash followed another searing headache which had Judai staggering. The Slifer Red turned towards the sound and blanched when he saw the mirrored corridors shattering and collapsing in on themselves.

 

" _There's no time. **Run.**_ "

 

"Where am I supposed to be running to?!" Judai demanded, even as he felt his feet involuntarily obeying.  The corridors zipped by in a blur, each looking perfectly identical and lined with more mirrors that he didn't dare to touch, cautioned by his previous experience.

 

" _You need to find a door._ "

 

"A door to where?" Judai asked, really not enjoying being so clueless.

 

" _Out,_ " the voice echoed hollowly. " _Your soul is under attack. This is a labyrinth created from your own memories to trap you."_

 

"To trap me?" Judai echoed as he was struck by a flash of remembrance. "So this is the power of the millennium rod..."

 

" _Yes,_ " the voice replied. " _And you must break out of here if you ever wish to reclaim your body._ "

 

"Then... My body is being yanked around like a puppet meat-zombie right now?" Judai exclaimed in indignation.

 

" _Not yet. The spell is still taking its hold. We still have time. But it is running out._ _It is taking everything I have to slow its progression. I do not have the strength to guide you._ "

 

Judai cursed and raised his speed. "But what about Yusei?!"

 

" _He will have to find the strength to escape on his own."_

 

"That's not an option. There's no way I'm just going to leave him to fend for himself!" Judai exclaimed furiously.

 

The voice spoke again, this time sounding fainter. " _Then you had better move it."_

 

* * *

 

Yusei stood on the edge of a swaying bridge, staring as if mesmerized at the swirling depths far beneath him. His body felt sluggish and unresponsive as if he was piloting it from far away.

 

"Jump," a sharp voice suddenly cut through the quiet hum that had filled the space. Startled, Yusei turned around to face the speaker, eyes widening when he came face to face with a familiar head of curly red hair.

 

"Rally...?" He asked uncertainly, troubled by the cold, accusing glare. "What are you doing here?"

 

"Jump, Yusei," he repeated in the same hateful tones. "After all, this is all your fault."

 

Yusei took a step back and suddenly became aware of their surroundings. They were in the B.A.D. area of Satellite, standing high above the old momentum reactor where he had once fallen to his death...

 

Rally grinned as the whites of his eyes faded to black and his form began to lengthen, his hair shrinking backwards into his skull turning and turning a dulled white. Kiryu gazed out of piercing yellow eyes.

 

"Because... You're the one who killed us, aren't you?"

 

"Kiryu..." Yusei whispered, staring in horror at the star of his recurring nightmares. "No..."

 

"What's wrong, Yu-sei?" Kiryu taunted, leaning forward until their foreheads were almost touching. "You really are a coward, aren't you? Too scared to atone for your sins?"

 

"I never betrayed you," Yusei said helplessly, the words slipping out like a familiar mantra. "I just wanted to save you."

 

"And you did such a bang up job of that," Kiryu purred, threading long, pale fingers through the shorter boy's dark hair. Without warning, those fingers were clamped around Yusei's neck, squeezing.

 

Yusei shut his eyes, gasping. But he made no attempt to escape the dark signer's grip. "Kiryu... I'm sorry."

 

"Don't think a pathetic little apology will make this water under the bridge! I'm going to make you _suffer_ for what you did to me." Kiryu screamed. He made to drag the black haired boy over the edge but was stopped by Yusei's hand on his wrist.

 

"I'm not apologizing," Yusei said, in a surprisingly steady voice. "Not to you."

 

"What are you talking about?" Kiryu snarled, tightening his grip until his nails dug little crescents in the signer's skin.

 

"You're not him," Yusei said bluntly. "You're not Kiryu."

 

"You must be blind as well as stupid!" Kiryu growled, giving his captive a rough shake, "Who else would I be?"

 

Yusei shook his head with some difficulty. "You're just a ghost from my past. My greatest fear. That no matter what I do, I won't be able to protect the people that are most precious to me."

 

Yusei lashed out with a booted foot, sending the man stumbling back with a grunt and releasing him.

 

"You--!" The dark signer snarled. "How _dare_ you!"

 

"You might be right about me. But the real Kiryu is alive!" Yusei shouted. "Despite everything, he's alive!"

 

The figure borrowing Kiryu's face stilled, silvery fringe covering up its eyes as its shoulders began to shake.  

 

"You're right~!" it taunted, lifting its head with a horrible grin, mask of outrage vanishing as if it was never there. "But what are you going to do about it? You're a long way from home, little Signer. And this time your friends aren't here to help you. Alone, you are powerless."

 

Yusei clutched at his forearm, head bowed. "Maybe so," he said. "Maybe I can't do anything on my own."

 

Kiryu's face split wider into its slasher's grimace and he spread his arms wide. "Then you'll die here alone, Yusei. Like you should have the last time you were here."

 

"...That's where you're wrong," said Yusei. He lifted his head, determined blue eyes met taunting yellow. "This mark is the proof of my bonds with my friends. No matter how far we are separated, Kiryu... Jack and the others ... Yugi-san and Judai... Our hearts will always be connected. And that's why I won't lose to you!"

 

As if in response to his resolve, the dragon's mark lit up and Kiryu flinched backwards as if seared by the crimson glow.

 

Then he laughed, the white-haired boy's features morphed again and Yusei found his own face staring back at him with black eyes like a twisted reflection.

 

"As expected," it said in his voice, low and amused. "But this is good. It wouldn't be any fun for me if you gave in so easily, Yusei. So I will give you a small token of my appreciation."

 

"What are you talking about?" Yusei demanded. "Who exactly are you?"

 

His only response was a soft chuckle that sent chills down his spine. Quicker than he could react, his double suddenly took a running leap off of the narrow bridge, laughing all the way down. Yusei ran to the edge in shock just in time to see the figure disappear into the swirls of rainbow energy.

 

Without warning, old momentum, the bridge, and the rest of his surroundings drained away and he fell down, landing hard on his knees and when he reached out to steady himself, his gloved hands found no purchase on the brittle sand.  The sharp pain in his right arm and the arid stench of smoke were like a shock to his system and for a moment it was all he could do to stare at his hands in bewilderment.

 

Then the thud of a body hitting the ground abruptly drew him out of his daze.  The haze in his blue eyes cleared away when he recognized the other's swaying form.

 

"Judai!" In a flash he was next to the other duelist, gingerly grasping his shoulders to steady him, and he felt his heart drop when dull brown eyes only stared vacantly back at him. He was rudely interrupted when an unwelcome pair of arms wrapped themselves around his neck in a chokehold and yanked him backwards, forcing him to finally take stock of his surroundings.

 

He were back in the desert village, no longer trapped by whatever had briefly ensnared his mind. He could only guess at how he and not Judai had escaped the spell but that was a problem for another time. He angled his head back and his suspicions were confirmed when Kasiya's empty-eyed stare was the only thing that greeted him.  And the man responsible for it all was standing not even ten paces away, one gnarled hand clutching his glowing millennium item in a death grip, the other grasping at his temple.

 

"What are you?" The old man demanded, much to Yusei's surprise. "How is it possible that a peasant like you can reject the powers of my Millennium Rod?!"

 

"What are you talking about?" Yusei asked warily.

 

"There's something inside him," a new voice cut in. Yusei stiffened as yet another man emerged from the fog. The newcomer wore long concealing grey robes and was swathed in bandages that covered every inch of his skin with the exception of a single red eye that was now scrutinizing him clinically as if he were a piece of meat on display at a market. Hanging from his neck on a thick braided cord was a solid gold key that pulsed with a magic that could only belong to another millennium item.   "Something powerful. Whatever _Ka_ dwells inside him is worth a thousand times what we've gathered so far."

 

* * *

 

Judai let out a frustrated curse as he was met with another dead end. But when he turned back towards the way he came, the halls had vanished and all he could see was a deep, unending darkness. Turning back the other way netted the same result. Save for the single tile he was standing on, his surroundings seemed to have vanished.

 

"Well, crap. Okay, Judai," he muttered to himself.  "Time for a new plan." Taking a deep, steadying breath, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

 

_Yubel said that I was trapped inside my mind. But... I've been here before. I just need to remember...!_

 

Judai's eyes snapped open. This time, he stood facing down a long, narrow hallway. At either end stood a set of heavy, ornate doors, both bolted and chained shut with thick iron locks.

 

"O...kay?" Judai ventured hesitantly. "Yubel, was this what you were talking about?"

 

"Yubel?" he called again when there was no response.  After several tries, it appeared that a reply wouldn't be coming. Judai chewed his lip. "Alright then," he muttered, "I'll just have to wing it."

 

The moment he took a step forward, the mirrors shuddered. Judai froze. Slowly, he edged backwards but it seemed the damage was done as the mirrored walls began to close in on him. Shouting an expletive, Judai made a mad dash for one of the ends of the hallway.

 

He wasn’t going to make it.

 

As the reflective panes closed in with crushing speed, Judai closed his eyes and braced himself for impact. However, rather than becoming a pancake against the labyrinth walls, Judai was met with almost no resistance at all as he was plunged into what felt like icy water. He stumbled forward, gasping for breath as he passed through some sort of filmy membrane.

 

Judai's eyes snapped open and he found himself standing in a wide circular room, similarly lined with flat gray stone and panes of distorted mirrors.  But he wasn't alone. His eyes raked across the figure standing opposite of him and his eyes slowly took on a decidedly golden tint.

 

"You have a sick sense of humor, you old bastard," he snarled. "Do you get your kicks from cosplaying boys a tenth of your age?"

 

The figure grinned at him, those horrible orange eyes glinting with madness. "Hello, Judai," it crooned. "I thought you would be happy to see me?"

 

"Don't screw with me!" Judai shouted as the air began to vibrate around him. "It's time you got the hell out of my head!"

 

"Oh, but I am having so much fun~!" The thing wearing his best friend's face asked, playing with the ends of his sea-green hair. "My, what darkness you have!  I barely needed to do any work."

 

"You're a bit behind the times," Judai scoffed, even as his fingers curled into fists. "I've already conquered my darkness. But now that I know you're the one behind this, that means all I have to do is kick your ass to get out of here!"

 

The thing wearing Johan's form shifted his weight, placing a gloved hand on his hip and smirked. When it spoke again, Johan's high boyish speech was replaced with a low, raspy baritone. "But that's not completely true, is it?" He asked.

 

"What do you mean?" Judai demanded.

 

"Have you really conquered your darkness? Have you really faced the deepest, ugliest part of yourself without _relying_ on those fools you call your friends? Or... Have you just been running away?"

 

"I'm not running from anything!" Judai retorted as he stuck his hand into the air. Glowing lines etched themselves around his wrists and forearm, slowly forming shapes until they coalesced into the familiar shape of a red and white duel disk. "Enough talking, we'll settle this with a duel!"

 

The Johan impostor watched him with an unreadable expression. "So your choice of weapon is a _diadhank_? Interesting _."_

 

"A Dia-what?" The brown-haired duelist muttered.

 

"Very well, then," said the impostor as his image twisted and wavered like smoke in the air, finally shedding his borrowed form in favor for his own skin. Shrewd yellow eyes scanned Judai appraisingly from sunken lids as the man readied his own gold plated duel disk. "You do have such interesting memories, from the snatches that I could see. I'll look forward to examining the rest in detail."

 

Judai growled low in his throat. "You stay the hell out of my stuff."

 

"Very well, then." The man sneered. "But the challenger will forfeit the right to set the terms of the duel."

 

"Fine," said Judai, narrowing golden eyes. "Name your terms. You won't beat me either way."

 

The man's wrinkled visage pulled itself into an even more unpleasant grimace at what he perceived was foolish overconfidence. "Seeing as you are nothing more than a simple peasant, I will make the rules simple."  The room shook as five large panes of glass detached from the wall and arranged themselves at his back.  Judging from the displacement of air behind him, Judai could guess that their positions were mirrored on his side of the field.

 

"Each player will start with 4000 points in their _Ba_ gauge.  We will each infuse each of these mirrors with our powers," the man explained, gesturing behind him. One by one, the panes darkened until Judai could see some sort of energy swirling ominously within its depths.  "One monster or one spell for each 'tablet'.   How you use them is up to you, but you must materialize at least one tablet each turn. Of course, the player going first cannot attack. The duel ends when one player cannot summon, or if one player can wipe out the other's _Ba_."  It didn't quite take a genius to guess the consequences of what that would entail. "As the challenger, you may go first."

 

In a regular duel, going first would set you up with a field advantage, but in this case, if you only had five cards to work with, your strategic options were much more limited. Also, with the one card per turn rule, timing is key: the second player could easily have card destruction effects and destroy the first player's chances of continuing. If you played all your cards on your first turn, you would run out of cards to play on your second turn and lose.  But even if you play conservatively, after five turns, the first player will automatically also be the first to run out of playable cards.

 

There was no room for mistakes.

 

Judai's eyes closed in concentration and five streams of light shot out from his duel disk and melded into the now softly glowing mirrors behind him.

 

"Fine," he said. "I summon **Elemental Hero Featherman** (1000/1000), and I set one card on the field!" The middle tablet flickered and the green-costumed hero glided out triumphantly with a confident flap of his wings. Then, the ground beneath Judai's feet shimmered as the second tablet vanished from its place behind him. "My turn is over."

 

The other man's lips curled. "How pitiful. Here in this dimension, you could have had your pick of any _Ka_ you are capable of controlling and you choose this little bird?"

 

"Why don't you try us?" Judai taunted.

 

"Allow me show you the error of your ways!”  Judai felt a stir of worry as his opponent threw his arms into the air in supplication; behind him, the dark mass of swirling light violently broke free, shattering the fragile glass that held it.  The duelist brought his forearm up to shield his face from the battering winds and dug his heels into the ground to avoid being blown away.  Featherman leapt in front of him, curling his wings around them, attempting to take the brunt of the impact.  The priest continued on undaunted, wrinkled face lighting up with a vicious glee. “I activate the ritual spell: **Final Ritual of the Ancients**! With this power, I can tribute monsters with levels equal to 8 from my hand or my field to resurrect the ultimate darkness whose power far outstrips that of the Egyptian Gods themselves!  I will sacrifice even the sun, the level 8 monster, **Dark Horus** , to pave His way to eternal glory.”  With a cry of fury, the figure of the majestic winged god appeared only for a moment before its form disintegrated into a shower of black sparks that were soon swallowed by the ritual magic.  Then, descending from the portal was a gargantuan stone creature with heavy turrets jutting out from his back like wings. Hovering silently before it were three darkened spheres that seemed to pulse with hungry intensity.  “Arise, **Reshef the Dark Being** (2500/1500)!”

 

“But that’s not all! Now I activate, **Monster Reborn**! **Dark Horus** (3000/1800) returns to the field!”  Judai’s heart beat harder as he was now faced with two monsters with a combined attack of 5500 attack points.  Featherman gnashed his teeth but stayed determinedly in front of his master.

 

“Now, **Dark Horus** , destroy that feeble creature!” The priest commanded.  The eagle-headed god let out an ear-splitting shriek before spitting a stream of flames which slammed into both the hero and the duelist, sending them flying back, crying out in pain as the heat scorched at their bodies.  Judai groaned as he pushed his aching body off of the ground, furiously trying to remind himself that the pain he was feeling was only metaphysical even as his _Ba_ gauge dropped to 2000.

 

But his opponent still had one more attack left.  “Finish him now, Reshef the Dark Being!”

 

“Not so fast!” Judai smirked.  “Now, I activate the trap card: **A Hero Emerges**!  When my opponent declares an attack, I can have them select one of the three remaining cards in my hand at random.  If a monster is selected, then I can special summon it.  Otherwise, the card will be sent directly to the graveyard.  Now, which will you pick?” he asked, gesturing at the floating mirrors.

 

“I’ll indulge you in your little parlor trick. Not that it matters,” his opponent sneered. “The leftmost one!”

 

Judai’s smirk turned into a full blown shit-eating grin. “Alright, then I’ll special summon **Elemental Hero Neos** (2500/2000)!”  The left mirror shattered and Judai’s faithful companion leapt down gracefully to take its place beside him.  The god and the hero exchanged baleful glares as they sized up the other.  But they were evenly matched in terms of attack power.

 

The priest growled low in his throat as he observed the two monsters. He glared hard as he recalled what he had sealed in his final tablet, the ultimate destructive magic: **Dark Hole.**  But in this situation it would harm rather than help him. He had one tablet left to play, yet this grinning fool still had two. His hands clenched into fists. On the other hand he could sacrifice his god to destroy both this ‘hero’ pretender and Reshef and pave the way for Horus in the next turn…

 

But there was no way he could let his precious god meet such an ignoble end!  “I… end my turn. You may have survived for one more round, but soon you will face the full wrath of my gods!”  

 

The brunette suddenly let out a laugh that was not at all friendly.  “You’ve already lost! You haven’t noticed yet, but you made a critical mistake in your first turn by trying to play it safe.”

 

“What did you say?” The priest growled.  “ _You_ are the one who has one foot in the grave, boy!”

 

“Why don’t I just show you?” Judai threw up a hand.  “I summon **Elemental Hero Stratos** (1800/300)!”  The blue armored warrior descended from a shower of shattered glass, and hovered next to his fellow warrior.  “When Stratos is summoned, I can add another Elemental Hero monster from my deck to my hand… for this duel, this translates to summoning a _sixth_ tablet!”

 

“ _What?!_ ” the priest shrieked. “T-That’s…!  That’s _cheating…!_ ”

 

“Says who? Your rules just said we had to _start_ with five.” Judai taunted.  “I add **Elemental Hero Captain Gold** (2100/800) to my hand! Now, I activate Captain Gold’s special ability! I can discard Captain Gold to add a certain field magic card to my hand… and that card is **Skyscraper**!”

 

The golden plated hero gave his young summoner a solemn nod before disappearing in a shower of golden sparks.  Abruptly the terrain began to shift and change, much to his opponent’s alarm.  Massive dark towers burst from the barren ground and filled the stone room with a spiraling cityscape.  For the first time, the priest dropped his haughty attitude in favour of gaping at his surroundings in stunned horror.

 

“What is this madness?!” he spluttered.

 

“This is your defeat,” Judai announced.  “Skyscraper’s effect: when an Elemental Hero battles a stronger monster, during the damage step they gain 1000 attack points!” The two heroes cracked their knuckles at the gods that began to look rather uneasy. “Now, I’ll attack Horus with Stratos and Reshef with Neos! And I guess I’ll end my turn with that.”

 

The man screamed, falling backwards as the heroes surged forward, pummeling his precious gods into oblivion, his _Ba_ dropping 800 points (LP: 3200).

 

“You little wretch!” he screamed.  “How… how dare you make _me_ suffer this indignity?  I will make you pay!”  He scrambled to his feet and prepared to activate his remaining tablet.  “I will use my **Dark Hole** spell to obliterate your pathetic little servants!”

 

“Will you?” Judai wondered.  “Are you sure you want to do that? After all, you only have that one card left. Don’t you lose if you can’t play a card in your next turn?”

 

“!!” The man gaped at him as the words sunk in.

 

“Oh wait, didn’t you make some sort of rule about us having to play at least one card each turn?  You can’t _not_ play it now, can you?”  Judai watched as what little colour was left in the man’s sallow skin disappear.

 

“Y-You…!”  He said, eyes bulging, "You planned this from the start!"

 

"You probably would have beat me in your first turn if you activated Dark Reshef's monster effect and took control of Wingman," Judai admitted without sounding too bothered. "But you didn't want to give up Dark Hole and you wouldn't have used such a strong effect on what you thought was a 'weak' monster. With a cowardly power like yours, I guessed that you'd only expend the minimum effort to win."

 

The millennium item holder let out an infuriated roar, tearing at his own face. But then he suddenly stilled, bloodshot eyes suddenly glittering with a cruel realization, setting off alarm bells in Judai's head. Slowly, the man drew his hood back over his head, hiding his face in shadow, only leaving visible a wide, unsettling grin. "I activate the destruction magic, **Dark Hole** and clear the field!"

 

A swirling darkness opened up beside him, stirring up a vicious gale that tore everything it touched into ribbons. Judai hit the floor and dug his hands and feet into the ground, watching in trepidation as Stratos and Neos were sucked into the vortex and with a final cry, disintegrated into a shower of sparks.

 

But the spell remained, pulsing hungrily in the sky.  Judai gritted his teeth as he felt the pull of gravity from the dead star grow. "So this is your plan?" he growled. "A bit of a sore loser, aren't you?"

 

The man spread his arms wide, revelling in his spell’s raw destructive power.  “You are mistaken, I am merely playing to win. Now, take your turn! You have no _Ka_ monsters to protect you. My life is practically untouched.  The more you stall, the stronger the dark star grows until it will consume you and your entire consciousness!"

 

"I still have one card left to play!" Judai declared as his eyes shone golden and the final mirror behind him began to resonate with his power.  "And it's more than enough to take you out. I activate: **Miracle Fusion**!”  Then, the gathering light within the glass exploded outwards, forming a spiraling portal in the ground that rivaled the black hole in intensity and forced the priest to bring a gnarled hand up to shield his eyes.

 

Judai continued on.  “This spell lets me fusion summon using fusion materials from my graveyard!  I banish Elemental Hero Neos and Elemental Hero Stratos to fusion summon: **Elemental Hero - The Shining!** (2600/2100)." One final hero, dressed in resplendent white and gold armor, rose triumphantly from the swirling depths.  "For each of my banished Elemental Hero monsters, The Shining gains 300 attack points. With Neos and Stratos banished, its attack points are now at **3200**! And," Judai's lips curled into a triumphant grin, "If you've been paying attention, that's exactly how many life points you have left."

 

The Shining's glowing form was briefly reflected in the priest's terrified eyes before Judai gave the order.

 

"The Shining, **Direct Attack**!"

 

The pure white force shot out from the monster's hands and the intruder screamed, mouthing desperate denials as the blinding light filled the room and burned both his body and his lifepoints into nothing. One by one, the mirrors cracked and splintered until the walls, along with the entire mindscape shattered and fell away.

 

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Hall of Mirrors**

* * *

 

**END**

 


	6. The Shrine of Wedja (Part I)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei and Judai may have broken free of the Millennium Rod's powers, but that doesn't mean their troubles are over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So funny story; last week I read Hourglass of Stars by HomuraBakura (please go read it, it’s amazing and plotty and Yusei and Judai are so wonderfully IC!) and it inspired me so much that I came back to this horrible trainwreck and here I am. It was sort of interesting to see how much my style has changed over the years. 
> 
> And a special thank you to anyone who’s still reading this. I promise the next chapter will be out sooner than 3 years since it has mostly been written and I'm just betaing.

  
  


As the arms holding him captive tightened around his throat, Yusei decided he really didn't care for their current odds. He had no idea how the Millennium items worked; all he knew was that somehow or another, something, whether it was the Crimson Dragon or the ...  _ thing _ he met in his mindscape, must have had something to do with his breaking free of the mind control spell. Just recalling the encounter sent chills down his spine but he forced the memory of it down. For the moment, Judai was still fighting. Yusei hazarded a glance at his captors who, for now, seemed to be more interested in sniping at each other.

 

The bandaged man stared appraisingly at the holder of the Millennium Rod, noting that the old man's breathing had become laboured.  "What is the matter, Heishin? Surely you do not need to expend this much effort to keep these criminals under control?"

 

"Be silent!" The man, Heishin snarled. "A minor setback. This  _ boy, _ " he spat, glaring daggers at Judai's slumped form, "seems to have his  _ Ka _ guarding his mind. But no matter, I will soon have him trapped in my labyrinth."

 

Bandages, as Yusei had started to call him, shook his head. "I am familiar with your methods," he said dryly. "We do not have the time, by the time you are finished, we will be up to our ears in Egypt's enemies. We must take the materials to Master Akhenaden immediately to begin the rituals."

 

"Then what do you propose we do?" Heishin scowled heavily. 

 

"I would propose you have one of your mind slaves physically carry the boy to the shrine," said Bandages with a hint of disdain. "Unless of course your power cannot handle dealing with so many minds at once?"

 

As Heishin scowled, Yusei took his chance. Mentally apologizing to Kasiya, he grabbed ahold of the arms locked around his neck, bent his knees for leverage, tucked his chin in and rolled forward. Utterly unprepared, Kaisya fell with him, hitting the ground headfirst with a rather nasty smack.  The bandit's glazed eyes rolled into their sockets as he slumped, unconscious. At least, Yusei consoled himself, the man wouldn't be forced to stand on his bad leg.

 

The two high priests whirled around in alarm at the sudden retaliation but Yusei was already moving. Darting forward, he grabbed his unconscious companion around the middle, and took off, hoisting him over his shoulder as he ran. 

 

"What--!?" The Millennium Rod holder shrieked his displeasure, brandishing his sceptre. "Seize him, you fools!" 

 

The enslaved villagers rushed forward sluggishly with their grasping hands outstretched. They were little more than unthinking dolls, programmed with one single-minded command, but there were too many of them.  Yusei once again wished for his D-Wheel as he tried to dodge and weave his way out of the crowd.  Or for Judai to wake up. 

 

His distraction had bought him enough time to flee the square, leaving the millennium item holder screaming obscenities behind them.  But this headstart was used up all too soon as more brainwashed villagers started climbing out of the woodwork with vacant faces and outstretched hands. Like one of those terrible zombie movies that Kiryu had been terribly fond of.  Yusei abruptly turned the corner and headed deeper into the town, drawing on his hastily constructed mental map from when they had been held prisoner.  

 

They were closing in on them, crawling out from every nook and cranny, bodies converging together to form a cage of puppet flesh.  He mentally apologized again as his elbow made contact with another villager’s head, wincing when their eyes rolled back into their skull as they collapsed.  But more took their place; another throng of brainwashed villagers suddenly rushed in from the front, cutting him off.  They were surrounded now and Yusei had no other choice.  He had to fight his way out. 

 

_ Judai, please wake up _ .  

 

The attacks became more and more relentless as their controller no doubt grew frustrated. Yusei found himself tiring all too quickly, limbs heavy with fatigue as his wounds screamed their protest. A meaty fist slammed into the back of his head, making him see stars. His legs buckled but he refused to go down.  Not with Judai still unconscious on his back. 

 

Another fist slammed into his stomach, a clawed hand digging into his hair.  But it wasn't until a stray hand suddenly found its way around Judai’s throat that Yusei lost it.

 

“Don't touch him!” 

 

Just as he shouted this, the Crimson Dragon’s glow enveloped them, repelling everything in a two metre radius around them. Stunned, the closest villagers’ prone bodies were launched into the air and the rest could only pound their fists uselessly against it. Yusei’s knees trembled with fatigue and as the thin shield wavered, he knew any respite granted would be temporary.

 

He had to think.  There had to be something he could do.

 

But then he heard a crack and he looked up just to see the barrier shatter.

  
  


“He's just one man!” Obviously at the end of his patience, Heishin growled, the eye on his staff glowing with ominous light as he stalked through the streets after his prey.  It incensed him that it was taking so long to capture the two peasants, one of whom was putting up an irritatingly persistent resistance. He scowled harshly as another migraine ripped through his head.  It was no matter. They will all come to heel in time. With the Millennium Rod, his powers were unparalleled. If the fool thought  _ distance  _ would weaken his grip over their minds, he would be greatly disappointed. 

 

Heishin could still see him through the villagers' eyes, no matter what kind of petty tricks he tried to pull. He had momentarily been blinded when that curious crimson dome had exploded outwards and flung his slaves away, but it had been child's play to catch his trail once more.  His eyes were everywhere, carrying his will to wherever he chose.  Truly the millennium rod held the greatest power; absolute dominion! 

 

Finally, he found him, trapped like a rat in a dead end.  Smirking victoriously, he stepped into the alleyway behind him with his minions at his back. The boy glared up at him, bruised and battered with those defiant blue eyes.  Eyes that he couldn't wait to see clouded over in despair.

 

But something was off.

 

“Where is the other one?” he demanded. The boy stood alone with his companion nowhere in sight. The boy didn't answer, his insolent glare the only response. Heishin scowled in return but dismissed it.  As soon as his avatar broke through the protections of the other boy’s mind, locating him would be child’s play.  A cold sneer curled his lips as he raised the millennium rod once more.  “No matter. Now, it's time for you to come quietly.” 

 

The boy visibly tensed and Heishin’s sneer widened. He had taken it as a personal affront that these two unknown peasants had given him this much trouble in the first place.  The might of the shadows were meant to be absolute!  The Millennium Rod glowed with malice as he once again sent the tendrils of his powers to suppress the boy’s consciousness.  Only to slam into a barrier of searing white light, repelling and vaporizing his shadows before they could so much as touch him.  He cried out, staggering as the stabbing pain in his own head magnified.  Why wasn’t it  _ working _ ?  And most infuriating of all was how the boy looked like he was half dead and moments away from keeping over.

 

At wit’s end, he let out a scream and raised the rod high into the air.  “Obey me, my  _ ka!  _ **Reshef the Dark Being** !”  The air was filled with a terrible chill as a noxious miasma descended. Around him, the villagers collapsed one by one like puppets with cut strings as a vortex of dark flames opened up above them.  

 

But the rush of triumph suddenly turned to pain.   Heishin let out a shriek, a hand shooting up to claw at his head as his vision flickered. His legs buckled as the vortex disappeared. “No,” he gasped. “No, this cannot be!” 

 

Yusei started in surprise as the man’s figure suddenly crumpled to the ground with ribbons of blood streaming from his nostrils.  At the same time, the air rippled and the dark, crawling pressure suddenly disappeared, leaving only the downed bodies behind.  He eyed them warily, scanning the villagers and his enemy for any signs of movement.  Everything was eerily still, save for the breeze stirring up the dust.  

 

“Judai,” he murmured, forcing his limbs to move again, one foot in front of the other as urgency filled him.  Part of him wanted to check on the villagers to make sure they were alright, but there was something more pressing.  He had to get back to Judai first.  Heishin’s power appeared to be broken and he could only think of one person who could have done it.  

 

But there was someone blocking the exit.

 

“How pathetic, Heishin.”  The bandaged man shook his head in disappointment. “Now I have to clean up your mess.” 

 

Pain exploded in the back of Yusei’s skull and everything went black again. 

 

* * *

  
  


"Ugh, my head," Judai complained, pushing the rubble from his chest so that he could sit up. Everything was spinning.  He blinked hard to clear the darkness from his eyes as he tried to find his bearings. To his growing concern, everything was still pitch black.

 

He blinked harder and saw a tiny thread of light shining through from a crack in the alcove.  Groaning, he shoved against whatever was obscuring his vision and the debris tumbled off of him and crashed into the sand.  Judai coughed, waving away the ensuing cloud of dust and realized that he was lying in a partially collapsed alleyway.  The fallen stone had created a barrier that had mostly hidden him from sight. It looked like something had exploded.

 

Frowning, he dragged himself up to his feet, flinching slightly when he noticed the scattered bodies around him. There were faint traces of darkness coiled around their heads but they were alive, as far as he could tell.

 

“That’s right…”  Everything came flooding back at once. The creepy mirrored dreamscape that he had been trapped in. The gate bolted shut with iron chains.  The duel with Heishin. “Yubel?”

 

_ Judai.  You did it _ . _ I knew you would. _

 

Yubel’s ghostly form appeared before him, her expression flat as ever but Judai knew her well enough to see the undercurrent of relief and he grinned sheepishly in return, scratching the back of his head. Defeating Heishin’s avatar in his mind must have made his shadow magic backfire. But he couldn’t have done it without Yubel holding his power back. 

 

“Sorry, I couldn’t get to it.  The door, I mean.  So I had to make my own way out.”  

 

Yubel made a noncommittal noise and turned her gaze away. 

 

_ … perhaps it was better that you didn’t _ .

 

Judai raised an eyebrow at the odd response but it soon fled his mind when he remembered something far more important. 

 

“Yusei!” he gasped, instantly on high alert. “That’s right!  We have to help him!”

 

But that was much easier said than done. Another look at his surroundings told him that this was nowhere near where the two of them had been before Heishin’s shadow magic took hold. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes and reached  _ out _ .  Fighting off a mental invasion hadn’t helped with his recovery but even to his dampened senses, the spirit energy from Yusei’s mark glowed with an almost searing brilliance. It didn’t take long before he managed to pinpoint his general direction.   

 

Judai’s eyes narrowed, taking on a faint golden cast.  “Yusei, I’m coming!”

 

* * *

  
  


The village was deserted. Judai’s heavy footfalls echoed in the ominous quiet as he forced himself into a run.  Besides the unconscious bodies he had found when he had awoken, Judai hadn’t come across another living soul.  His jaw tightened when what he did find were corpses. The unlucky ones trampled by monsters or charred by dragon fire, gazing up at the unfeeling sky with horror in their blank eyes.  The more he ran, the greater his unease grew.

 

Just how long had he been out? Where did they take the other villagers?  Just where was  _ Yusei _ ? Judai couldn’t think of any reason why he would have been left behind like that.  Not when the attackers had made it clear they were gathering the villagers for a reason.  

 

He was uncomfortably reminded of another time and another place. When he was driven to madness as he desperately searched for his lost friend.  That bastard Heishin had really torn open those old wounds.  But this time was different.  He could feel the flickering red light at the edge of his senses - a steady, guiding pulse, almost like a heartbeat.  

 

Judai suddenly stopped, nausea washing over him when a rank smell filled the air.  The darkness up ahead was thick with such cloying malevolence that even Judai found it hard to stomach. Unlike the soothing warmth of his own powers, or even the cold nothingness wielded by Darkness and Mr. T, the shadows that the millennium holders manipulated were filled with bloodlust and hatred. 

 

The village square came into view and Judai winced at the sight of the corpses piled up. The only way to describe what happened here was a massacre. They were bandits; criminals and thieves that had been more than happy to hurt him and Yusei.  But they didn’t deserve to die like this, did they? That familiar dull anger began to burn through his chest. The utter disgust at what men would do for power.

 

(But a quiet voice whispered in his head that even  _ this _ didn’t hold a candle to what  _ he’d  _ done.) 

 

_ Focus, Judai _ . Yubel’s reprimand sounded in his head.  _ Your priority is Yusei, remember?  And all these men were already long dead in your time _ .

 

“That’s not the point,” Judai muttered back.  But she was right. As she always took great pains in telling him. Squaring his shoulders, he continued to cut through the square with grim determination etched into his features… until one of those supposedly dead hands suddenly closed around his ankle.

 

“Holy shit!” Judai let out a rather embarrassing screech as he tore his leg away, hopping rather ungracefully for a reincarnated Neospacian Prince and Herald of Gentle Darkness.  

 

At least Yusei hadn’t been around to see that, even if Yubel was rolling her eyes at him. 

 

The hand turned out to be connected to a trembling husk of a man struggling to crawl along the ground.  Judai’s brows knitted when he realized he recognized the long dark hair in tangled braids falling over the sunken hollows of his cheeks. Only this man’s face was twisted in pain instead of malice.

 

“Khaldun?” he formed the unfamiliar name slowly, having a rather hard time reconciling the smirking villain who had taunted them and tortured Yusei with this pathetic looking creature. He couldn’t help but feel  a stir of pity, despite everything this man had done to them. “What happened to you?”

 

Khaldun coughed weakly, the corners of his mouth stretching into a rather ugly grin. “Looks like it’s your lucky day, huh? Too bad.  I was looking forward to playing with you both again.” 

 

Judai couldn’t help but scowl at the implied threat. “Can’t say the same.”

 

“Don’t be so cold,” the man said before erupting into a coughing fit, little flecks of blood hitting the sand. “Especially to someone who’s doing you a favour.” 

 

“A favour?” Judai echoed skeptically. 

 

“You’re worried about your pretty little boyfriend, aren’t you?” came the reply that had Judai bristling all over again. He tensed up, but the man only brought his hands together and worked off one of the gaudy rings on his fingers.  “Take this. They’ll have taken him to the shrine beneath the palace.  You’ll need this to get through the barrier.” 

 

Judai blinked, staring down at the ring in his hand in suspicion, his heart in his throat as he thought of Yusei, alone and captured by the same people who turned this village into a mountain of corpses.  “... Why? Why are you doing this?” He had to ask.

 

Khaldun made a sound that Judai thought might have been a rasp.  Judai’s eyes flashed gold once more and he could see the hideous gaping wound where part of his soul had been forcibly ripped out.  Both of them knew that he didn’t have long.  “I was a high priest once. And those were my men.”

 

Slowly, Judai reached out to take it from his lax fingertips.  He straightened up, sliding the ring into his pocket as he marched from the square.  

 

Behind him, he could hear a whisper, fading into the wind.

 

“Help them.” 

 

Judai’s eyes flashed. “You don’t need to tell me.” 

 


	7. The Shrine of Wedja (Part II)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei and Judai may have broken free of the Millennium Rod's powers, but that doesn't mean their troubles are over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning; contains a complete disregard of canon timelines but *throws hands up*

_The shrine beneath the palace._

 

Judai gritted his teeth when he realized just how unhelpful those directions were.  After several long, grueling hours, he finally made it to the palace. If it wasn’t for his spirit sense, he would have long since been lost in the dunes as the wind slashed away any traces of their tracks. Luckily, he had managed to find a horse or his trek could have taken days.  Days that Yusei couldn’t afford to wait.  Sneaking past the armed contingent of guards had been the easy part, once he had cloaked himself in shadows.

But now that he was actually here, feeling his way around for secret passages that he had come to a standstill.  Frustratingly, he had no idea where this shrine was actually hidden!  He could still feel Yusei’s presence but the signal was muddled.  No doubt whatever protections that were in place were also interfering with his abilities.  And every precious second that ticked by was a second closer to Yusei possibly getting hurt!

A muffled thump suddenly sounded from somewhere behind him and he jumped.  Warily scanning the cellar he had been searching, Judai began to back up toward the exit but collided with a barrel. It wobbled unsteadily before tilting precariously on its side and crashing to the ground with a dull thud. Judai froze, hoping fervently that the noise had gone unnoticed.

“Oof,” said the barrel.

Judai froze.

With another clatter, the lid was knocked askew and then a small figure, only about as tall as waist-level, struggled out of it and peered at him disapprovingly with familiar scarlet eyes.  He was small and tanned and was decked out in an obscene amount of gold.  Not to mention that hair!  Eyes nearly popping from his head, Judai sank to his knees, unintentionally putting him at eye level with the apparition.  “Yu… Yugi- _san_?!”

The boy, who looked _exactly_ like a tiny tanned replica of the future king of duellists cocked his head to the side, transfixing him in place with a glare.  “Who are you? What are you doing in the palace?” he demanded sternly, placing his hands on his hips.  The gesture looked slightly ill-fitting on him as if he were mimicking another.

Judai gulped and held up his hands in a hopefully universal gesture of surrender.  “I was just… looking for something?”  The tiny Yugi kept up his stare which suddenly made Judai feel horribly guilty for every possible misdeed he may have committed in his life.

“What are you looking for?” the boy pressed.

Judai immediately sobered up.  There wasn’t time to be distracted! “A friend,” he replied.  “I’ve lost a friend.”

The boy abruptly dropped his glare, interest peaked. “How did you lose them? Are they hiding?”

“No…” Judai replied and could not prevent his eyes from darkening in front of the child.  “Some bad guys took him away to some kind of hidden shrine.  But I’m going to get him back!”

At the admission, the boy’s red eyes slowly filled with concern.  Then he beamed as a thought occurred to him.  “There’s a shrine here underneath the palace!” he exclaimed.  “I don’t know about any bad guys but that’s where Father said for me to go to look for a high priest if I ever get into trouble when he’s not around.  Maybe they can help you find your friend?”

“Really?!” Judai couldn’t believe his luck.  His heart began to beat faster.  “Can you show me where it is?”

The boy nodded with enthusiasm, appearing delighted to finally have a playmate.  “Sure!” He grabbed Judai’s hand with both of his much smaller ones and began to drag him down the hallway.

They hadn’t gone more than twenty paces before they heard a series of thundering footsteps race down the hall accompanied by the shouts of the palace guards.  Both boys blanched, but likely for different reasons.  “This way,” hissed the child, shoving them both into a darkened alcove and buried his distinctive looking hair into the older boy’s jacket.  Moments later, a battalion of men rounded the corner and raced down the emptied hall without sparing a glance in their direction.  After waiting to ensure that there were no other stragglers, the two slowly edged out from their hiding place.

As the much smaller boy visibly sighed in relief, Judai glanced at him quizzically.  “Are you running away from something too?”

The boy then made a face; the childish expression was surprisingly out of place compared to his earlier maturity. “Mahaado is looking for me,” he said distractedly by way of explanation.  Judai couldn’t help but stifle a laugh to see the tiny Yugi actually act his age.  He couldn’t have been more than a toddler.

As soon as the coast was clear, the little boy snatched him up by the sleeve of his jacket and began to guide them through a series of twisted tunnels that had Judai doubting that he could have ever found his way out of by himself.  Finally, they stopped at what looked to be a stretch of blank wall.

“Alright, it’s through here,” little Yugi decreed, absently smoothing back his tousled blonde bangs.

Judai blinked in confusion and nearly entertained the thought that he might have been pranked, but such thoughts were quickly stripped away when the tiny Yugi stuck his hand right through the wall.

“It’s an illusion,” the boy confided and retracted his hand, a rather familiar ring glittering on his finger. “It’s secret, so don’t tell anyone.”

“I promise,” said Judai.  “I can’t thank you enough, Yugi-…! Uh, I mean...”

The tiny Yugi stared up at him questioningly.  “Who is Yugi?” he asked, sounding just the tiniest bit put out.

“Ah… it’s just… someone I really respect and admire,” Judai said quickly, cheeks flaming crimson.

“If you say so,” the boy said doubtfully, tilting his head.  “Good luck finding your friend.  In any case, I have to get back to my hiding.”

“Of course,” said Judai.  “Sorry to keep you.”

Flashing him a beaming grin, the tanned boy scampered off.  When he was halfway down the deserted corridor, he turned back.  “I forgot to introduce myself,” he called.  “My name is Atem!”  With that, he spun around, his tiny cloak swishing around his shoulders as he disappeared into the dark.

Judai stared after him for a moment, marveling at the strangeness of time travel. He almost called out to him again but caught himself at the last moment. Temporal paradoxes aside, the other Yugi had his own story to live. It wasn’t up to Judai to interfere. He quickly shook off his thoughts and faced the barrier, taking a steadying breath as he slipped Khaldun’s ring onto his finger.

“Just a little bit longer, Yusei!”

 

Or so he hoped.

 

_I told you we should have gone left._

“Not now, Yubel.” Judai gritted his teeth as he ducked down beneath another volley of arrows and dived across the floor.  He had made it just in time as the wall slammed into the ground behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand that made him cough.

Khaldun’s ring had gotten him past the barrier but it did nothing for the countless traps and obstacles beyond it.  Of course, nothing could ever be easy for him. Pitfalls with wicked looking spikes, invisible wires, mechanisms that activated all sorts of other death traps including this one with automatic crossbows.  

The high priests must have had some other method into reaching the shrine, something that Khaldun had neglected to mention. Judai could still sense the faint undulations coming from Yusei’s mark, but no matter how far he ventured into this labyrinth the signal was no clearer.  Not even Yubel could tell him if he was getting closer or if he was only going around in circles.

Judai pulled himself up, glaring down at another corridor that was just as identical as the last, only the floor was covered in a set of large tiles arranged in a deliberate pattern.  He groaned.  No doubt the placement of the images must have some sort of hidden meaning that someone like Yugi or Yusei would no doubt decipher with one look.

“I don’t suppose you have the answer?” he muttered, half-expecting a snide answer.

 _Please. Like I would be an expert in Ancient Egyptian pictionary_.

“How do you even know what pictionary is?”

Cautiously, he edged himself across the tiles, toeing each one carefully. He made it halfway until he heard an ominous click. He flinched, throwing himself off the tile and bracing himself for more poison-tipped arrows or swinging axes.  But nothing happened at first and Judai thought he was safe until a tremor rippled across the ground. Judai had one second to swear loudly before the entire floor fell away.

“I don’t have time for this!” he yelled, reaching for his cards as more spikes glinted beneath him. “Come out, Neos!”

The hero dove down, snatching Judai into the safety of his arms before he could be impaled.  He had been expecting curses or monster ambushes and these stupid mechanical traps were giving him far more trouble than they were worth.  He was being led around in circles, never getting close enough to the steady pulse he could feel on the edge of his senses.

But he couldn't afford to waste any more time. Every misstep was another step closer to something awful happening to Yusei; something that he would rather die than allow.  

If only these stupid walls weren't in the way.

Judai narrowed his eyes, this time drawing on Yubel’s power and wreathing it around him like a cloak. “I summon Neo Spacian, Gran Mole!  Gran Mole, make a path!”

 

_Are you sure, Judai? You could bring these catacombs down on our heads._

 

Judai hesitated. Until the choice was taken out of his hands.

 

Yusei’s signal was flickering.

 

* * *

 

 

Yusei awakened with a shiver to the sound of ominous chanting and found himself lying on a cold stone floor.  He pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing when the movement jarred his still tender wounds.  Yusei then allowed himself to sigh.  He really was beginning to get sick of waking up in cells.  He peeled open his tired lids but his eyesight was slow to catch up, only registering vague shapes and blurred lights for the first several moments.

Then a shriek cut through the fog in his head and he was suddenly wide awake.

His vision snapped into focus.  A glance at his surroundings revealed that he had been dragged into a cage that was just tall enough for him to sit up in.  His captors had divested him of his jacket and shoes, to his relief, neglected to take his deck, unaware of its significance.  From his vantage point, he could see that he was not alone.  All around him were cages of similar sizes, packed to the brim with filthy looking men, women, and children.  Some were sobbing audibly but most were sitting slack against the bars, gazing at nothing. Yusei realized with some alarm that he recognized the figures as inhabitants of the bandit’s village.  He sucked in a death breath and only let it out when he did not see a familiar red jacket among them.

There was a large raised dais in the center of the room, surrounded by a circle of men in hooded robes.  The hair on the back of Yusei’s neck stood on end as the men continued to chant. They had been brought into something that reminded him unpleasantly of the ruins of the ancient temple where they conducted their battle with Godwin. But this place was like no other place of worship he had seen before.  His stomach turned unpleasantly when he saw the figure suspended at the altar.

It was a man.  His bloodless limbs were strung apart, bound with thick iron manacles and stretched to the limits. At first, Yusei thought he might have been dead until his mouth opened and an ear piercing scream broke out through the hall. Yusei flinched like he had been struck as he watched the man twist and wail like he was being wrung like a sponge, buckling uselessly against the chains. There was a shadowy substance dripping from the pores of his skin and pooling at his feet.

The cloaked men surrounded him with their arms raised in a mockery of a prayer.  One of them stepped forward, throwing off his hood, revealing a sharp-featured face that would have been unremarkable if it were not for the gold eye glistening in his left socket.

“Now, let us behold the true form of your soul!” he thundered.  His false eye glowed with unnatural light and the mist shuddered before a small white gelatinous blob with huge black eyes emerged from it, squirming and struggling as it was dragged into existence.  The robed man struck the floor with the end of his staff and behind him, a large stone slab rose from the floor.  Waves of energy rippled out from where the staff had struck.  The creature shrieked and attempted to flee but, caught in the light’s hold, it was sucked into the awaiting tablet.  What was once blank canvas was now etched with a crude approximation of the creature’s image.

The man lets out a final rasping breath before he slumps in his chains, his body eerily still.  Aghast, Yusei strained to check for signs of life.  He found none.  His fellow prisoners watched the proceedings dispassionately, gazing out with glassy eyes.

“Hmph,” said the man, eyeing the tablet as if it had done something to offend him.  “Another small fry.  But you. You are different from him, aren’t you?”

With a start, Yusei realized the man was now addressing him.

“Ah, our guest is finally awake,” the robed man, Akhenaden said.

Yusei shook with fury, digging little crescents into his palms.  “So you're the mastermind behind all this.”

“That is correct.  But it will do you no good to know this now, outsider.”  With a pointed look from his leader, Heishin spun around to address the guards, gesturing to the corpse hanging from the rack.

“Get rid of this trash and start preparing for the ritual!” he bellowed.

“Yes, my lord!” chanted the men.  One of them roughly cut the dead man loose and tossed his body onto an awaiting trolley, ready to be carted off.

They unlatched the cell and dragged Yusei out toward the now vacant altar.  One of them gave his dark hair a vicious tug when he refused to cooperate but cringed back with a curse when Yusei rammed an elbow in his face.  Eventually, they overpowered the wounded duelist, clapping cold iron manacles around his wrists and ankles and strung his limbs into place. Refusing to give his captors the satisfaction of seeing him beaten, Yusei continued to glare defiantly.

“Now, let us begin,” said Akhenaden, pulling his hood back over his face and stepping back into the circle to resume the chanting.  For the first several seconds, nothing happened.  Then, Yusei took a sharp intake of air as something seized his insides with in a vice grip and _twisted_.  With a clank of the chains, Yusei threw his head back and clenched his teeth as the spell took hold.

"You're sick," Yusei forced out amid pained gasps. "Are you planning to sacrifice all these people for your twisted ambitions?!"

Gazing at him coolly, Akhenaden spoke up.  “Don’t misunderstand me,” he said.  “I derive no pleasure from these rituals.  The man you saw before was a vile criminal who lied and murdered and cheated.  And you are no exception, to be found in that pit of human filth.  Everything I do is to serve the pharaoh.  I will dye myself in blood and darkness so he may continue to the guiding light that Egypt needs him to be. And if that means disposing of few pieces of trash, then so be it!”

Yusei snarled, pulling against the rattling chains. "Who are you to decide what these people are worth?! There is no one that is unnecessary!  You've orphaned children and tore apart families. And for what? What gave you the right _?_ "

"I am the High Priest, brother to the Pharaoh!" Akhenaden thundered, ramming his staff against the stone and unleashing another ripple of magic that slammed into Yusei with crushing force. "Everything we do, we do for Him and the good of Egypt! Judging sinners is my duty."

“This isn't justice... This is just murder!  You think you can build a utopia on top of sacrifices?  You're not the first tyrant to try. But I know how it ends. Your kingdom will crumble.”

Finally losing patience, the high priest snarled.  “That's enough out of you, scum! Now, let us see what is hiding in your soul!” Like the slam of a gavel, Akhenaden brought down his staff once again. Rising from the ground was another stone tablet, blank and pale like an unmarked grave.

The chanting crescendoed and all of Yusei's senses were replaced with pain. His insides burned as if the blood in his veins were boiling him from inside out as something inside him was slowly being torn from him. Yusei's body began to glow and white threads of light poured out from his eyes and mouth and were slowly being drawn into the tablet by the ancient ritual.

Then, an entirely different pulse of pain shot down his right arm as his Signer mark began to burn. The priests watched in shock when the light suddenly flashed crimson and the connection snapped, creating a massive shockwave which sent the men flying from the platform.   

The glowing residue from the ritual faded and in its place emerged a great dragon, shining with the light of a thousand stars.  It let out a piercing cry that made the shrine walls tremble and the men’s knees lock in fright.

“A white dragon god…” Akhenaden mumbled from where he had fallen, slack-jawed with disbelief.  Without him noticing, his staff had slid from his trembling fingers hit the stone floor with a loud clatter.  He cringed back involuntarily when the dragon growled and lifted its massive claws, but it brought them down towards the chained Yusei with a surprising tenderness and shattered the stone pillars anchoring his bindings. Yusei fell to the ground, wincing as the manacles bit into his skin, and looked up at his saviour with stunned eyes.

 

"Stardust... Dragon."

**Author's Note:**

> X-posted from tumblr and FFnet.


End file.
